A landslide that ripped down a sopping, heavily forested mountainside in southeast Alaska killed three people, injured a woman and left three other people missing as it smashed into three homes in a remote fishing community, authorities said Tuesday.
Rescue crews found the body of a girl in an initial search and late Tuesday the bodies of two adults were found by a drone operator. Crews resorted to a cadaver-sniffing dog and heat-sensing drones to search for two children and one adult who remained unaccounted for hours after the disaster, while the Coast Guard and other vessels looked along the oceanfront, which was littered with debris from the landslide. The ages of the children were not released.
The slide — estimated to be about 450 feet — occurred at about 9 p.m. Monday during a significant rain and windstorm near Wrangell, an island community of 2,000 residents some 155 miles south of Juneau.
Alaska State Troopers spokesperson Austin McDaniel said at a news briefing that crews on Tuesday morning rescued a woman who had been on the upper floor of a home that was struck. She was in good condition and undergoing medical care.
The slide scoured the mountainside, leaving a scar of barren earth from near the top of the peak down to the ocean, wiping out large evergreen trees and leaving what appeared to be remnants of homes in its wake. One of the three homes that was struck was unoccupied, McDaniel said.
Wrangell is one of the oldest non-Alaska Native settlements in the state, founded in 1811 when Russians began trading with Tlingits, according to a state database of Alaska communities. Tlingits, Russians, the British and Americans all accounted for historical influences on Wrangell. Timber once was a major economic driver, but that has shifted to commercial fishing.