The search will get underway today for three men believed killed when a landslide hit a coastal city in Alaska.
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Elmer and Ulises Diaz had been painting and completing drywall work on a home there, said Ramon Hernandez, who worked at Four Points Painting with the Diaz brothers. City officials said he is William Stortz, 62, who also is the city fire marshal.
Emergency responders have said only that the missing people are believed to be workers at a residential construction site.
No other injuries have been reported.
“Heavy rainfall has triggered multiple landslides throughout Sitka prompting the City and Borough of Sitka to declare a State of Emergency”, the town’s website stated on August 18, before the total of missing people was finalized. One sinkhole was documented.
Rep. Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins, a Sitka resident, said in a phone interview Tuesday evening that he was heading home from a wedding in the Lower 48. That buried a home and damaged several others. Peterson said the rain subsided in the afternoon and a drizzle had started by evening.
Chris Harshey, a carpenter, was working on a nearby home when the slide occurred.
Alaska Gov. Bill Walker, facing camera, tours the landslide area on Kramer Ave.in Sitka, Alaska, Wednesday, August 19, 2015 with Sitka Mayor Mim McConnell, right, City Administrator Mark Gorman, far left and Fire Chief Dave Miller. “All of a sudden, I heard crackling and crumbling, and then the lights flickered”, he told the Sentinel. The picturesque fishing community, tucked between snowcapped mountains and the Pacific Ocean, is nestled in rain forest terrain on the west coast of Baranof Island that is characterized by heavy rains year-round.
“I was the one who called her to tell her husband was missing in a landslide”, Gorman said.
Mr Harshey said that after going outside to investigate, he saw a “sea of large logs, mud, more logs and a slurry of muddy debris”.
“It has been raining like hell for the last 24 hours”, Schmitt said around noon Tuesday.
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Peterson says it was drizzling early Tuesday afternoon, and more rain is expected. The rain also damaged a footbridge and trails, including one that was repaired after flooding in January 2014.
