Federal fisheries experts paint devastating picture of the challenges facing Pacific salmon and point to climate change as the main culprit.
An East Hillcrest Ave. home was damaged in a mudslide brought by heavy rains Thursday afternoon.
No one was injured when a car hit a 6-foot-by-8-foot rock that fell from cliffs next to the Seward Highway late Wednesday.
The slide occurred at a time when forecasters in the region are cautioning backcountry skiers and snowboarders about the potential for warming weather to increase avalanche risk.
Fairbanks resident Erin Lee, 40, was transported to Mat-Su Regional Hospital via helicopter where she was pronounced dead, according to the statement.
Juneau’s urban avalanche forecast describes “extreme” danger Saturday evening. Centennial Hall will open as an emergency shelter at 8 p.m. Saturday.
State transportation workers found wet ground may have contributed to the small landslide, despite the lack of recent rain.
Ketchikan officials say there’s “currently no danger of dam failure” but noted that a flood advisory is in place through Sunday.
Rockfall along the Seward Highway near Beluga Point has been happening since wind and rain battered the area earlier this week.
Nearly 12 inches of rain fell on the town of Pelican in 48 hours, and all-time records were set in Juneau, Skagway, Haines, Petersburg and Ketchikan. The City of Haines is sending alerts about the immediate danger of landslides.
“It was a beautiful event that we were lucky to have survived,” Andrew Hooper said.
Areas of the Southeast Alaska city “received between 3 and 7 inches of rain” in 24 hours over the weekend. The sodden ground caused mudslides in some areas, and wrecked roads and ditches around John Street and Peters Lane in Douglas.
A storm that hit Southcentral Alaska on Saturday night led to flooding in Girdwood, a landslide on the Sterling Highway and left thousands of homes without power throughout the region on Sunday morning. More than a foot of rain fell in Girdwood by Sunday.
No one was hurt when a slab avalanche buried one child and partially buried two others.
City park staff have set up barriers in hopes of encouraging passersby to stay far away. Potential fixes could include putting up a wall and relocating the bike path or road.
Authorities warned that drivers should use caution in the area due to the potential for additional rockslides.
Transportation engineers moved the road to avoid a giant mass of frozen debris sliding downhill.
DOT spokesperson Shannon McCarthy said the weather this week -- alternately freezing and thawing -- was likely the culprit.
When 200 million metric tons of rock tumbled down a remote Southeast Alaska mountain in October, nobody was around to see it. But thanks to a beefed-up seismic network and a new system that can distinguish landslides from earthquakes, scientists knew it had happened.
Temperatures in the area were unseasonably high last week, reaching into the mid-40s, according to the National Weather Service. Then temperatures dropped below freezing Sunday and into Monday morning. "There's a lot of water flowing underground in this area," McCarthy said. The freeze-thaw "caused some instability and that made it slide."
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