The Klondike Highway remained closed on Monday due to multiple avalanches. (Mike Swasey photo)
Skagway remained largely cut off from the outside world on Monday as the only road out was closed, no ferries were scheduled and bad weather has grounded commercial flights.
Alaska Seaplanes canceled flights to the upper Lynn Canal on Monday, citing weather as the culprit. A company representative says they’re watching the weather to see when the Juneau-based carrier will be able to resume flights.
The Alaska Marine Highway system has no ferries scheduled for Skagway until at least February 5. The Kennicott will sail to Haines on January 12, but it won’t call on Skagway. There is no word on whether any service will be available for the upper Lynn Canal through the end of this month.
Alaska Department of Transportation officials closed the Klondike Highway on Sunday and will continue working to reopen it as soon as possible. Two vehicles were allowed to travel southbound to Skagway on Monday.
Skagway Police Chief Jerry Reddick was able to make it over the pass. His vehicle was escorted by a Skagway-based DOT plow from Fraser, BC across the US border.
“We had a lot of snow drifts and they were pushing through snow drifts all the way,” said Reddick.
DOT officials say they are working on clearing two avalanche chutes that had fallen over the weekend, then refilled with snow on Sunday and they would be blasting to bring snow down and prevent more slides from happening in the same areas.
“They had two snowblowers going they were clearing the roads pretty good. And then they had several plow trucks up there trying to clear that off as well,” said Reddick.
Skagway-based DOT has a tiered priority list. The first priority is the airport, once that’s clear they move on to the Klondike Highway. Up next is the Dyea Road and finally Sanitarium road out to Liarsville.
Transportation officials say they are short-handed and don’t expect to get to the Dyea Road and Sanitarium Road cleared before Tuesday.
Meanwhile, rain mixed with snow is expected in the region, says Kimberly Vaughan from the National Weather Service in Juneau.
Snow continues in Skagway. (Mike Swasey photo)
“We’re going to have a period where it starts to snow in the evening as temperatures start to lower in snow overnight and then warm up during the day and transition back into rain during the daytime hours. So it’s gonna fluctuate between rain and snow,” said Vaughan.
She says she expects the precipitation to be fairly light, but with the warmer temperatures causing snowmelt, slick conditions like ponding can develop.
“Ponding is when the water just sits there, and it’s unable to leave the actual surface. So it could be because there’s ice, it could be that the ground is supersaturated,” said Vaughan.
Skagway’s local officials released a statement on Monday alerting residents that rain on top of snow can lead to excess weight on roofs, boats, and aircraft that are tied down outside. The hard-pack snow can become icy and slick and avalanche dangers will increase. They also warn of the potential for flooding in the region.
They ask the community to remove snow from fire hydrants and stormwater drains and to limit travel and use of the municipal trail system until the weather system moves out of the area.
