Officials say six people are unaccounted for after a massive landslide following heavy rains in Alaska.
Nine feet of mud and trees covered the area after the main landslide, which occurred in Haynes just before 1:50 a.m. Wednesday, state troops said in a statement. At least four houses were destroyed in a community of about 2,000 people in southeastern Alaska.
There were minor landslides, but the largest occurred Wednesday afternoon, Haynes Mayor Douglas Olerude told Anchorage’s NBC affiliate KTU.
“We’ve had significant rainfall over stagnant land and snow tops,” he said.
Search and rescue operations were suspended for the evening due to unstable ground, state troopers said, but more help was arranged to arrive on Thursday.
Coastguards, as well as mountain rescue personnel and doctors from Junao have either arrived or will arrive on Thursday, officials said.
Greg Spa, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said Wednesday evening that more than an inch of rain fell at Haynes Airport for hours, and another inch or two before the storm ended. Inches are likely to remain.
Haynes set up a flash flood watch for the area until Thursday morning.
“Southeast Alaska is used to seeing a lot of rain,” Spain said, but “this is an exceptional amount.”
A fisherman named Woody Pahal told Alaska public media that he was near the port when the landslide believed he had three houses.
“And I see, and the water is coming out, all the boats are going back to the harbor. And the mountain strip is just slipping and sending all the trees and houses, out of the house, into the bay,” he said.
Hennessy is on the Alaska Pendaedel, south of Skagway and about 75 miles north of Junau.
