Volunteers gathered at the Emergency Operations Center in Haines for a third day of searching for Jenae Larson and David Simmons — missing after a landslide. Search and Rescue head Dick Rice has been directing people into areas to search and spot.
(McChesney/KTOO)
The search continues Saturday for two Haines residents missing since Wednesday’s devastating mudslides.
Fissures above the major slide on Beach Road and continued storms hamper the search effort. Geologists recommend against sending teams into the slide zone due to unstable ground and the risk of another landmass coming down.
The hillside along Beach Road, where local business leader David Simmons and kindergarten teacher Jenae Larson lived, gave way on Wednesday. Their homes were destroyed and the two have been missing since then. State geologists on Saturday said the ground there was too unstable and recommended that search crews stay away from the slide zone. There’s still a risk of another landmass coming down in the area.
A K-9 unit from Juneau called SEADOGS was able to search the bottom of the slide along the beach. Those teams are equipped with radar that can determine how deep the debris pile is. A helicopter in Juneau has been fitted with specialized equipment to photograph the slide zone, but it’s not clear if any flights were able to make it into town during the brief good-weather window.
Mayor Doug Olerud gave an update to evacuees on Saturday, telling the community that state geotechnical experts advise against anyone searching landslide areas by foot until four days after the rain stops.
“We know that’s not what you want to hear,” he said, while heavy rain continued to fall outside.
The geologists are also assessing slide risk zones in other parts of town. They’re hoping to clear some areas so that some people who have been evacuated can head home. There’s at least fifty displaced families—roughly 10 percent of Haines’ population.
Meanwhile, local road crews scrambled to clear and repair roadways before the heavy snowfall started again Saturday afternoon. Every single hotel in Haines is full and the school gym has been turned into an emergency shelter with cots ready for anyone who needs a place to sleep.
On Saturday Governor Mike Dunleavy released his signed disaster declaration for this week’s damaging storms in Southeast Alaska. The National Weather Service issued a Flash Flood Warning and a Winter Storm Watch through Sunday morning.
KTOO’s Rashah McChesney contributed reporting to this story.
This is an evolving story and it will be updated.
