KCAW - Sitka

The National Weather Service is predicting more rain Friday, with two to three inches falling Friday night, and some gusty winds. Incident meteorologist Joel Curtis, with the National Weather Service, says the rain is expected over a longer stretch of time than Tuesday’s downpour, limiting the risk of more landslides.

Search crews recovered a body from the Kramer Avenue landslide in Sitka, around 7:15 p.m. Wednesday. Officials are not releasing the name of the person who was found, at the request of the family. Two other men remain missing.
The body was found by a cadaver dog with the Juneau-based search team SEADOGS. Sitka has requested more dog teams, which are expected on the ground Thursday.

Search efforts are ongoing, with crews combing through the Kramer Avenue site. Assistant Fire Chief Al Stevens says the effort right now is “one log at a time” as the team searches for the two missing men.

A team of geologists brought in to assess the site have determined that it’s safe enough to continue work, though the area remains unstable. That same team has determined that the slide began at an elevation of 1,400 feet up Harbor Mountain.

The National Weather Service is predicting more rain Friday, with two to three inches falling Friday night, and some gusty winds. But the rain is expected over a longer stretch of time than Tuesday’s downpour, limiting the risk of more landslides.

Officials have now identified at least seven landslides around Sitka, including slides on the Blue Lake Road that are blocking access to Sitka’s dam; and washouts on the Green Lake Road.

Update | 2:40 a.m. Aug. 20 – Robert Woolsey, KCAW

A second body has been found.

Update | 7:15 a.m. – Robert Woolsey, KCAW

The body of one of the three missing men has been found.

Original story

Gov. Bill Walker was in Sitka Wednesday to assess the damage from a series of landslides that hit the city after heavy rains Tuesday. He also met with the families of three people missing since that morning.

Meanwhile, the search for those three men was proceeding slowly, hampered by fears of further landslides.

Walker arrived in Sitka early Wednesday morning and flew over the affected areas in a Coast Guard helicopter.

He said it wasn’t until he was standing at the edge of the Kramer Avenue landslide –where trees are stacked fifteen feet high and there’s a blank space on the hillside where a house used to be — that the scale of destruction came home to him.

“I mean, the size of the logs …” Walker said. “They showed me a picture of the house before. I mean it was a substantial, significant sized house … the devastation is just amazing. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Three men are missing and presumed dead after a river of mud and debris wiped out a house and much of the road on Kramer Avenue, a new neighborhood about three miles from downtown Sitka. Walker said it reminded him of the scene in Valdez after the 1964 earthquake, and said he was “overwhelmed.”

“I’ve prided myself, I’ve been governor about nine months now. I’ve prided myself by saying I’ve never had a bad day,” Walker said. “Well, I can’t say that anymore. This is a really tough day.”

Walker also met with the families of the missing men. All three were involved in construction in the neighborhood. William Stortz, age 62, is Sitka’s building official. He was inspecting the site on Tuesday morning. Brothers Ulises and Elmer Diaz, ages 25 and 26, were working on one of the houses.

Meeting with family and friends of the Diaz brothers at Sitka’s Grace Harbor Church, Walker said he shares their frustration that search efforts aren’t happening faster. The area around Kramer Avenue remains unstable, and search teams have been held up by concerns about more landslides.

During a news conference with the governor at Sitka’s Fire Hall, City Administrator Mark Gorman choked up as he spoke about the three missing men — and about Sitka’s response. Hundreds of Sitka residents have signed up to volunteer in the search or have dropped off food for the responders and for families evacuated from their homes.

“What I found in the last 24 hours is heart-wrenching and it’s about community,” Gorman said. “William is a friend of many years, family, and a colleague. The Diaz boys grew up with my sons and this is what this is about today; it’s about hurt and caring in our community. I extend my sympathy to all the families and neighbors and friends. We are hurting collectively today.”

Fire Chief Dave Miller echoed Gorman. Miller said he’s worked with the Sitka Fire Department for about 28 years.

“I think yesterday was one of the hardest days of my life,” Miller said, pausing to regain his composure. “When I had to talk to those family members and say, ‘I am so sorry,’ first for what happened, and then that we are not allowing those teams to go in and start looking for your family members. The thing that we have to worry about is the safety of all the others, too. The safety of the people who are going to go in there and do that, look for their [family] members.”

Meanwhile, Sitka Mayor Mim McConnell said she’s not yet ready to give up hope.

“The important thing that I think a lot of us need to keep in mind [is] that miracles do happen,” McConnell said. “There are family members and friends that are hanging onto that, and I support that. You just never know.”

Sitka has requested the governor to declare a state of emergency, which would open up access to state funds for the response. Walker said the request is his staff’s top priority, and would be answered as soon as possible.

 

As crews continue to cautiously work through debris searching for the three victims of Tuesday’s deadly landslide in Sitka, it’s clear that the event could have been much worse. There are many homes below and to either side of the slide, and there were two other people directly in its path who escaped.

It’s not raining at the moment in Sitka, at least not down here close to sea level. But the amount water running through the Kramer Avenue slide suggests that the heavy clouds overhead are again saturating the slopes of Harbor Mountain.

City engineer David Longtin is working with some tree fallers and a track hoe to divert water away from the recovery area.

“It’s going to start raining again. And when it does start raining we don’t want more water to go in there. We want it to go in the ditch where it should be.”

Longtin has been here almost continuously since the hillside above Kramer broke loose Tuesday at 9:30 a.m. He had accompanied city building official William Stortz to the site to inspect the drainage in this brand-new subdivision after the extraordinarily heavy rainfall earlier in the day.

Longtin and Stortz were standing in the drive complimenting the work of a third man, excavator Jerome Mahoskey, when the slide started.

“We heard a rumbling. It didn’t immediately dawn on us what it was. We looked at each other with puzzled expressions, and then we looked up the hill and saw these 200-foot trees falling like dominoes, boom-boom-boom, one after another.”

Although the slide was still far up the mountain, Longtin says it was moving fast. The subdivision was tucked into a small ravine, and it was clear that the slide could turn and head their way.

That’s when they started running.

“Of the three of us, William was the farthest uphill, but still within five feet of us. Jerome was next to me as we started sprinting down the hill. Out of the corner of my eye I saw William behind me with a concerned look on his face, and we just started running. I was aware of Jerome being next to me the whole time we were running — and not aware of William. I think I would have been aware of him, even though he was behind us. He’s 61 or 62 years old but very fit, very nimble.

“So we ran down the access road, got into Kramer. Started running down Kramer, and I decided to run up onto this 30-foot embankment — this pile of gravel — to try and stay above it all. Jerome decided to stay out on the road. You can see where the slide stops. Jerome was able to run past here before the slide got here. And from the time we started running until the time we got up here it was probably no more than 10 or 12 seconds — no more than that, and no sign of William.”

The search is still underway for Stortz’s body, and those of two other victims, brothers Elmer and Ulises Diaz, who were working in a house in the path of the slide.

Longtin doesn’t talk about whether or not he is lucky. He, and many other city workers and volunteers, are just too busy addressing the aftermath. But he brings an engineer’s perspective to the event — and how he survived it. Once the slide reached Kramer Avenue it was a mass of mud and interlocking trees — and it was slowing down.

“It was a solid, but it was acting like a liquid. It was flowing. Imagine mayonnaise. Maybe not quite that viscous. I was running as fast as I could downhill. It wasn’t nipping at our heels, but it wasn’t too far behind, either.”

The slide came to a halt about 100 feet above where it is now. Longtin says that there was no sign of William Stortz. He and Mahoskey went back up the slope to try and find Mahoskey’s truck, which had his two dogs inside. The slide pushed downhill twice more — about 50 feet each time. Then Longtin called 911 and began the work that he has been doing since.

Having been in harm’s way, this engineer is not too anxious about remaining there.

“You know there was a lot of potential energy up there before it released. But now it’s been released and I think it’s kind of reached equilibrium more or less. I’m keeping my eye on it — don’t get me wrong — but I don’t feel that nervous being here.”

Update | 7:45 a.m. – Robert Woolsey, KCAW

Rescue operations wrapped up for Tuesday at around 8 p.m.. City
officials will consult with geologists at first light Wednesday
morning, and resume the recovery operation for the three missing men,
who are now presumed dead.

Original story

Three people are still missing after heavy rain triggered a series of landslides in Sitka Tuesday morning .

Governor Bill Walker plans to be in the city Wednesday to visit the affected areas.

The City of Sitka Tuesday evening identified the missing people as Sitka Building Official William Stortz, 62, Elmer Diaz, 26, and Ulises Diaz, age 25.

All three were involved in the construction of several new homes on Kramer Avenue, about two miles from downtown Sitka. The slide in that area destroyed one of the new homes entirely, and damaged another.

The area remained unstable Tuesday afternoon and officials suspended search and rescue efforts for several hours, over fears of further landslides — though rescuers did manage to pull a dog alive from the debris. As of Tuesday evening, search and debris removal efforts had begun again, with plans to continue Wednesday morning.

The neighborhood below the slide was evacuated. Neighbors reported a second slide on the northern end of Kramer Avenue, in an area that hasn’t yet been developed.

Heavy rains triggered what now appear to be at least six landslides in Sitka Tuesday morning, prompting the city to declare a state of emergency.

In addition to the two on Kramer Avenue, a slide across Sawmill Creek Road heavily damaged the administration building at the Gary Paxton Industrial Park, Sitka’s former pulp mill site, about eight miles from downtown. No injuries were reported, but the building was evacuated, along with bunkhouses belonging to local fish processor Silver Bay Seafoods. Sawmill Creek Road was closed past the industrial park as crews worked to remove the debris.

A fourth slide was reported in a more remote area, on Harbor Mountain, closing Harbor Mountain Road. Other slides were reported at Green Lake, and along the Gavan Hill trail.

The National Weather Service recorded over 2-and-a-half inches of rainfall in the six-hour period between 4 a.m. and 10 a.m. Tuesday.

The flash flooding prompted temporary trail closures at Sitka National Historical Park. And flooding in the parking lot of the Sitka Laundry Center on Halibut Point Road opened a sinkhole the size of a large van in the pavement, threatening two propane tanks, which were safely removed from the site.

Update | 5:28 p.m. – Robert Woolsey, KCAW

Officials now say only three people remain missing in Tuesday’s landslide: City building official William Stortz, 62, and construction workers Elmer Diaz,26, and Ulises Diaz, 25.

The area remained unstable and officials suspended search and rescue efforts for several hours this afternoon, over fears of further landslides — though rescuers did manage to pull a dog alive from the debris. As of Tuesday evening, rescue and debris removal efforts had begun again, and were planned to continue until dark, and pick up again in the morning.

 

Update | 4:17 p.m. – Rachel Waldholz, KCAW

Four people are believed missing after triggered a series of landslides in Sitka early Tuesday morning. Recovery efforts have been suspended while officials wait for the affected slopes to stabilize.

Those missing were all likely involved in the construction of several new homes on Kramer Avenue, about 2 miles from downtown Sitka. The slide in that area destroyed one of the new homes entirely, and damaged another, though the full extent of the damage was still unclear Tuesday afternoon.

Neighbors have reported a second slide on the northern end of Kramer Avenue, in an area that has not yet been developed.

The area remained unstable and officials suspended search and rescue efforts this afternoon, over fears of further landslides — though rescuers did manage to pull a dog alive from the debris. The neighborhood below the slide has been evacuated.

Heavy rain triggered what now appears to be at least three major landslides — and a handful of smaller ones — in Sitka this morning, prompting the city to declare a state of emergency.

A slide across Sawmill Creek Road heavily damaged the administration building at the Gary Paxton Industrial Park, Sitka’s former pulp mill site, about eight miles from downtown. No injuries were reported, but the building was evacuated, along with bunkhouses belonging to local fish processor Silver Bay Seafoods.

A third slide was reported in a more remote area, on Harbor Mountain.

Harbor Mountain Road has been closed above the first gate at the bottom of the hill. Sawmill Creek Road has been closed beyond Silver Bay Seafoods, as crews work to remove the debris.

The National Weather Service recorded over 2-and-a-half inches of rainfall in the six-hour period between 4 a.m. and 10 a.m..

The flash-flooding prompted temporary trail closures at Sitka National Historical Park. Flooding in the parking lot of the Sitka Laundry Center on Halibut Point Road opened a sinkhole the size of a large van in the pavement. Two propane tanks on the edge of the sinkhole have since been removed.

 

Update | 2:45 p.m. – Robert Woolsey, KCAW

Recovery operations have been suspended at the site of a major landslide in Sitka, after officials became concerned over instability of the failed slope.

Four people remain unaccounted for in the slide, which destroyed a new home under construction and damaged another.

Sawmill Creek Road has reopened. A second slide this morning crossed the road and damaged the administration building of the Gary Paxton Industrial Park. A third slide near Jacobs Circle did no damage.

Update | 1:45 p.m. – Robert Woolsey, KCAW

Four people are believed missing in a landslide that occurred in Sitka early this morning.

Those missing were all likely involved in the construction of several new homes on Kramer Avenue. The slide in that area destroyed one of the new homes entirely and damaged another.

Neighbors have reported a second slide on the northern end of Kramer Avenue in an undeveloped area.

Heavy rains triggered what appears to be three landslides in Sitka early in the day. A slide across Sawmill Creek Road heavily damaged the administration building at Gary Paxton Industrial Park, but no injuries were reported. The building was evacuated, along with the Silver Bay bunkhouses.

Sawmill Creek Road remains closed beyond Whale Park.

The National Weather Service recorded over 2-and-a-half inches of rainfall between 4 and 10 a.m.

The flash flooding prompted trail closures at Sitka National Historical Park. Flooding in the parking lot of the Sitka Laundry Center opened a sinkhole in the pavement. Two propane tanks on the edge of the sinkhole have been removed.

Sitka police and fire departments are asking residents to refrain from calling, as phone lines are needed for emergency communication. Also, there is no need for additional volunteer help at this time.

Original Story | 11:39 a.m. – Rachel Waldholz, KCAW

The City and Borough of Sitka has declared a state of emergency after heavy rain triggered at least three different landslides this morning.

The Sitka Fire Department has reported slides on Halibut Point Road, Kramer Avenue and Sawmill Creek Road, near the Gary Paxton Industrial Park.

The slide on Kramer Avenue damaged at least one house. The extent of the damage is not yet clear.

Anyone working on the construction on Kramer Avenue is asked to call the Sitka Police Department at 747-3245. Sitka Search and Rescue is trying to account for everyone who might have been in the homes affected by the slide.

The fire department closed Sawmill Creek Road at Whale Park. Kramer Avenue was also closed. Halibut Point Road remains open.

KCAW has also received reports from residents in the 2200 block of Halibut Point Road below Kramer Avenue that homes have been evacuated.

Expect more updates as information becomes available.

Updated at 9:00 a.m.

Officials are now estimating that about 2,500 gallons of diesel spilled into Sitka Sound this weekend, after a fuel tank failed at the city’s Jarvis Street Power Plant.

That’s significantly less than the 7,000 gallons feared Sunday.

By Monday evening much of the spill had been cleaned up or dispersed — and officials were hoping that a storm would help finish off the rest.

When it failed over the weekend, the storage tank at the Jarvis Street Power Plant released about 30,000 gallons of diesel. Most of that was caught in a cement containment enclosure designed for exactly this sort of event. But when responders pumped the diesel back into the tank on Sunday, they found about 7,000 gallons missing.

Some of that diesel leaked into the city’s storm water drainage system and spilled into Sitka Sound at Eagle Beach, near the mouth of Indian River.

But a significant amount likely evaporated — as much as 4,000 gallons, according to estimates from the Coast Guard.

Bob Mattson is the state’s on-scene coordinator for oil spills in Southeast. He works for the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation.

“When oil is exposed to the air and the elements it undergoes a weathering process,” Mattson said. “A lot of it is lost due to evaporation — and of course people in Sitka know what the weather was over the weekend, had some pretty nice days, especially on Friday and Saturday. So we know that the amount of oil which actually evaporated is going to be significant — with diesel oil it is — but we won’t ever really know exactly how much.”

For now, officials are estimating that about 2,500 gallons may have made it into Sitka Sound.

Mattson says he’s pleased with the city’s cleanup efforts so far. Coast Guard and city personnel laid absorbent material throughout the storm water system and on the beach on Sunday and Monday, catching and mopping up much of the spill.

By Monday afternoon, the only sign of the cleanup were several layers of containment boom in a small area around Eagle Beach. Mattson says what’s left is a sheen on the water.

“It looks bad,” he said. “But fortunately it’s a thin layer, and in terms of a volume, there’s not a lot.”

The spill is near Indian River and the Sitka National Historical Park, but speaking Monday afternoon, Superintendent Mary Miller said that so far, no diesel has showed up in the park.

“We swept the park first thing this morning to see if there was anything that was moving in our direction,” Miller said. “And not even any evidence, not any smell, not any anything. And so right now it looks like things are as good as could be expected.”

Officials say there have been no confirmed reports of wildlife affected by the spill. Subsistence users are being asked to avoid the area, but the Alaska Department of Fish and Game has determined there is no threat to commercial fisheries.

Officials are also anticipating some help from Mother Nature. Storms moving into the area this week are expected to help break down and disperse the diesel.

Mattson says that predicted rain means that Indian River will likely be running higher than usual.

“Any of the oil sheen that wants to move along there … into the mouth of Indian River will meet this big wall of freshwater and it will shove it back out,” Mattson said. “So that’s good, that protects the mouth of the river.”

Meanwhile, officials hope that wind and wave action will break down the remaining diesel so that bacteria in the water can take care of the rest.

“Oil wants to break down naturally in salt water,” Mattson said. “It gets into smaller and smaller droplets, and this wave energy is going to force it into smaller and smaller micron-sized droplets, and that’s available for bacteria … who can actually use that as a food source.”

Officials don’t yet know what caused the tank to fail, or why the oil leaked out of the containment area, though the investigation is focused on a faulty valve.

Mattson says it’s too soon to consider whether there will be any fines or penalties associated with the spill. That often depends on how proactive the responsible party – in this case, the city — is during the cleanup. Sitka had actually staged an oil spill response drill this spring in almost the exact location of the actual spill.

For his part, Mattson says he’s here for the duration.

“I’ve got a one-way ticket to Sitka,” he said. “I won’t be returning to Juneau until I’m satisfied that things are good.”

Original story

A storage tank at Sitka’s Jarvis Street Diesel Plant failed over the weekend, spilling an estimated 4,000 to 7,000 gallons of diesel into Sitka Sound near the mouth of Indian River.

Teams from the city, state, and Coast Guard are working to contain and clean up the spill and to find out what caused it.

As of Sunday night, it wasn’t yet clear exactly how much diesel had actually made it into Sitka Sound.

The Jarvis Street Diesel Plant is owned by the city — it’s Sitka’s backup power station — and City Administrator Mark Gorman said the failed storage tank released about 30,000 gallons of diesel into a cement containment enclosure. Some portion of that — perhaps as much as 7,000 gallons — then leaked into the storm water system, which empties into the ocean at Eagle Beach.

Gorman said that though the release is near the mouth of Indian River, so far there’s no sign of diesel in the river and the spill has been contained to Eagle Beach and the water near Cannon Island.

The Fire Department estimated that about 40 people from the city, the state Department of Environmental Conservation, the Coast Guard, and the National Park Service were on site Sunday, using boom and absorbent material to contain and soak up the spill. Speaking Sunday evening, Gorman said the efforts so far have had a visible impact.

“I was down at the impacted area this evening twice, and you can smell it in the air, but there’s no sheen on the water at this point in time, so it seems to be dispersing pretty rapidly,” Gorman said.

According to a press release from the city, the Fire Department first received a call around 11 a.m. Saturday reporting a heavy smell of diesel near Eagle Beach. Assistant Fire Chief Al Stevens says the department found a small patch of diesel in the water, but couldn’t locate its source. He says responders thought it had perhaps come from a fishing vessel in the area, and contacted both the state and Coast Guard.

The city then received a second call on Sunday, reporting sheen on the water near Cannon Island. This time, the Fire Department traced the spill to a storm drain on Sawmill Creek Road, and eventually followed it back to the Jarvis Street Diesel Plant.

Around 1 p.m. Sunday, The Fire Department initiated its Incident Command System, marshaling resources from the city, state, Coast Guard, and National Park Service. Stevens says the leak was stopped around 3:30 p.m. Sunday, and teams worked throughout the afternoon to mop up the spill. “It certainly is a big deal,” he said.

But Gorman added that diesel is much easier to clean up than, say, crude oil.

“Diesel is not oil,” Gorman said. “If this was an oil spill, I think the 7,000 gallons going into the Sound would be alarming. It’s not good to have diesel going into the sound, but diesel does evaporate and dissipate quite rapidly.”

It’s not yet clear why the tank failed, or how the diesel leaked out of the containment enclosure. The city, state and Coast Guard are all involved in that investigation.