Weather

Updated at 4:25 p.m. ET

California Gov. Jerry Brown has declared a state of emergency as firefighters in the state’s north battling expanding wildfires, intensified by a prolonged drought, that have spread to tens of thousands of acres north and east of San Francisco, Capital Public Radio in Sacramento reports.

Brown said the declaration would speed up the clearing of debris after the fires and waive fees for people needing to replace official documents that were lost in the disaster.

At least 25,000 acres are on fire in Lake and Napa counties and another 65,000 have been engulfed at San Andreas. Four firefighters were injured battling the blaze overnight.

The Associated Press says: “One explosive blaze raced across several rural communities in northern California [Saturday], forcing thousands of people from their homes. Four firefighters suffered second-degree burns and are being treated in connection with a blaze that started about 100 miles north of San Francisco.”

An evacuation was ordered for Middleton, a town of about 1,500 residents located about 50 miles north of San Francisco. Reports are that the town has sustained serious damage.

California Department of Forest Protection spokesman Daniel Berlant says winds gusting to 30 mph had rained hot embers down on homes in the Lake County blaze. He said more than 80 homes had been destroyed.

“This has been a tragic reminder to us of the dangers this drought is posing,” Berlant said.

Reuters adds:

“About 100 miles (161 km) to the southeast, the so-called Butte Fire has destroyed 86 homes and 51 outbuildings in rural Amador and Calaveras counties, where it covers an estimated 65,000 acres (26,305 hectares), officials said. It is only 15 percent contained.

“Thousands of residents in the area were required to evacuate on Friday, and the blaze threatened more than 6,000 structures, officials said.

“More than 3,800 firefighters were working to contain the fire, which erupted on Wednesday near the former gold mining town of Jackson.”

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Update at 5 a.m. Sept. 11: Flood watch and flood advisory have been cancelled.

Original story at 10:30 a.m. Sept. 10:

The National Weather Service is warning of heavy rain of 2 to 4 inches and winds to 50 mph for Juneau through Friday. There’s a flood watch for Thursday afternoon through Friday afternoon.

Tim Steffen, meteorologist at the Juneau office, says a strong weather front has moved into the area that has remnants of tropical moisture from former typhoons. But it does not include the former tropical storm Ignacio that was earlier headed for the Alaska Panhandle.

“Ignacio moved to the south of Southeast Alaska earlier this week,” Steffen says.

As of 5 a.m. Thursday, Steffen says they recorded an inch of rain that fell in downtown Juneau and south Douglas over the previous 12 hours. About three-quarters of an inch of rain fell at National Weather Service offices on Back Loop Road.

Steffen says they expect Jordan Creek and Montana Creek to become bank full with the recent rain.

A hurricane working its way toward Haida Gwaii could mean heavy rains for the panhandle’s southernmost communities and nicer weather for Juneau.

Hurricane Ignacio originated north of Hawaii Friday morning. It’s expected to pass south of Dixon Entrance. Another low pressure system coming across the gulf from the Bering Sea is headed toward the southern third of the panhandle; it’s expected to pull some of the hurricane’s moisture north.

Heavy rains are expected Monday for Prince of Wales, Ketchikan and the southern tip of Baranof Island — but not Sitka. Nicole Ferrin, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Juneau, says the low pressure system will travel through the region over the next five days.

“If people down there notice the heavy rain, they might think that it’s Ignacio but it’s really not,” she said. “The low will still be quite a way to the southwest from our area at that time.”

Ferrin said residents of the affected communities should see typical fall weather, but don’t expect tropical storm force winds.

“We get influence from tropical systems frequently. The unique thing about this is we can see it on the map and that’s pretty unusual,” she said.

The weather service may issue a special statement if the heavy rains warrant it.

Ferrin said Juneau would be “marginally affected” by the storm and may even experience nicer weather as a result. Typically when a low pressure system passes south of the capital city it results in drier weather.

Tropical storms are hard to predict once they leave they tropics, so this forecast could change over the weekend. You can find the latest forecast on the National Weather Service’s website.

Search teams in Sitka were racing the clock Friday as they worked to find the third victim of Tuesday’s landslide before the arrival of a new storm.

The National Weather Service is forecasting heavy rain and wind in Sitka this weekend.  Officials say the weather will make it unsafe for crews to work, as more rain could cause more slides.

Meanwhile, alsoo released the names of the two landslide victims whose bodies were recovered on Wednesday and Thursday. They were identified as Elmer and Ulises Diaz, ages 26 and 25. The two brothers were working on the Kramer Avenue house that was destroyed in Tuesday’s landslide.

Teams are still searching for the third man missing since Tuesday, 62-year-old William Stortz, Sitka’s building official.

Deputy Fire Chief Al Stevens, who is running the response, said recovery teams had “a very small window” in which to finish their work, “and it’s rapidly closing.”

“I intend to pull all crews out at approximately 8 o’clock tonight. If the rains come sooner, I’m going to pull them out sooner,” Stevens said. “We’re going to pull all equipment, all crews out, obviously for safety reasons. We will probably stand down all operations throughout the weekend, until we reassess the weather and it allows us to get back in there and do whatever it is we need to do.”

There were several dog teams on site from the Juneau-based search group SEADOGS. Dogs had called attention to an area on Thursday where officials hoped to find William Stortz. But Stevens said that as of Friday afternoon, dogs had also indicated several other sites, and crews are working at all of them. He said it isn’t easy going.

“As you can imagine, this is rather deep, with mud, water, logs,” Stevens said. “And you don’t just come in and scoop a big chunk out and call it good. You have to methodically and meticulously pull one piece out at a time, and we have spotters in there that have to look at what’s happening, and this is why it’s taking so long.”

The National Weather Service is predicting up to three inches of rain in the next 36 to 48 hours. But meteorologist Joel Curtis said that’s still significantly less intense than the storm on Tuesday that caused at least six landslides around town.

“We got 2.57 inches at the airport in six hours,” Curtis said. “So we figure along the ridge [where the landslide began] it was much, much more. And I’ve actually got someone with a rain gauge that says, hey, they got five inches. And I am guardedly trusting that reading that they got.”

Curtis said that because the rain is falling over a longer period of time, the risk of landslides this weekend might be limited.

Still, Department of Transportation geologist Mitch McDonald said there is “definitely still the risk” of more slides, and of more movement at the Kramer Avenue slide in particular.

“I would stay away from the area, if the rain intensity occurs as it’s predicted,” McDonald said. “That’s what I personally would do.”

The city has issued a voluntary evacuation request for Kramer Avenue and the neighborhoods below it, including Sand Dollar and Whale Watch Drives. Those residents were evacuated immediately after the landslide, before being allowed to return home on Wednesday.  An evacuation order remains in effect for Jacobs Circle.

A temporary shelter at Grace Harbor Church will be open for residents displaced by the voluntary evacuation.

The City has also called an emergency Assembly meeting for 8 p.m. Friday to consider a local disaster declaration ordinance.

Search crews recovered a second body from the Kramer Avenue landslide in Sitka, around 12:40 p.m. Thursday. The discovery was made near the location of the first body, which was found Wednesday evening.

Officials are not releasing the names of the victims as requested by the family. One man remains missing; search dogs have alerted to a third location on the south side of the slide where searchers will focus ongoing efforts.

Sitka Fire Chief Dave Miller reports that a team of cadaver dogs from Juneau led searchers to a sweatshirt on the west side of the slide, and subsequently to the body. Miller would not confirm the identity except to say, “It’s one of the boys.”

Elmer Diaz, 26 and his brother Ulises, 25, were working in one of the new homes under construction in the subdivision just off Kramer Avenue. The structure was completely obliterated by the landslide which struck Tuesday morning. The Diaz family has maintained a vigil at Grace Harbor Church since the event.

Still missing are the other Diaz brother, and William Stortz, 62, Sitka’s building official, who was inspecting drainage in the subdivision when the slide occurred.

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.