Sitka-in-the-Sea

[rodekyll]

Just got word that Sitka, my home town, is having an emergency.  4.5" rain in a couple hours after about 7" in 24 has washed out roads, caused a sinkhole downtown, and several significant landslides.  Several homes destroyed, the new highway is gone, and at least four people missing.  Entire neighborhoods under water.  Cars washed into the ocean.  I had the choice of building a woodshed for the smoke house or repairing my roof before leaving on this trip.  I did not chose wisely.

[ITSec]

Just got word that Sitka, my home town, is having an emergency.  4.5" rain in a couple hours after about 7" in 24 has washed out roads, caused a sinkhole downtown, and several significant landslides.  Several homes destroyed, the new highway is gone, and at least four people missing.  Entire neighborhoods under water.  Cars washed into the ocean.  I had the choice of building a woodshed for the smoke house or repairing my roof before leaving on this trip.  I did not chose wisely.

Dang, that's not good to hear. Did anyone at home have access to any poly and a ladder, or have you got a lot of potential internal damage to be assessed? I hope your place is at least on a mild slope for drainage - a larger slope would be worse than none at all!

[rodekyll]

My house is on muskeg, which is a bog topography over hardpan.  The normal water table is about 8" under the surface.  In normal rain a person needs knee boots to navigate the back yard.  I have someone doing a walk through and am awaiting a report.

My friend says a good portion of the town has been evacuated to the high school and folks are opening their homes to refugees.  There is no power or potable water.  The four major slides took out the power grid and water mains.  A new subdivision under construction has disappeared along with the construction crews and equipment.  the debris field is half a mile square and 25' high.  They can't access it to search for survivors.  She says cars were swept from the streets and into Sitka Sound.

If there is any good news it's that this is sure to be declared a disaster area and we'll have some help rebuilding.  But that's a small comfort.

[ITSec]

I'm familiar with muskeg - I lived in the far north in Manitoba for many years, and we basically had granite, muskeg and lake - and not much else. The news is still pretty sparse down here, but I'll keep an eye and an ear out for you and your family, as well as the town.

[tiger_one]

I looked up Sitka on the map, last step before the ocean it appears!  Hoping for good news soon.

[Sasquatch Jim]

  You guys normally get more than your share of rain but that is going too for.
  Has one of your neighbors been building an ark? Herding pairs of animals into it?

[rodekyll]

Yes, there's an ark, but the idiot who built it brought in pairs of males.   

We can handle an inch of rain/day for weeks at a time, but when you get that much in that short a period, driven by high winds, the evergreen trees tip over and then the dominos fall.

Here's a news website that is trying to keep up with the situation.  They're getting a lot of it wrong (compared to the eyewitnesses I've been talking to) but you can get a sense of it from the broad strokes.

http://www.adn.com/article/20150818/4-missing-after-heavy-rain-causes-landslides-sinkhole-sitka

[Kiwi_Roy]

Yes, there's an ark, but the idiot who built it brought in pairs of males.   

 

That would be a queer Ark

[fotoguzzi]

time to move mainland (St Paul)?

[rodekyll]

I just discovered that one of the missing is Fire Marshal Wm. Stortz, a personal friend of my family.  He was on-site in his official capacity and his prospects are grim.   

Brad -- my daughter has been working on me to move to St. Paul for years.  As I get older the invite gets more appealing.

[davedel44]

Sorry to hear this.  Hope your place is OK and your neighbors fare well.
Mother nature can be a real B. 
Dave
Galveston

[oldbike54]

I just discovered that one of the missing is Fire Marshal Wm. Stortz, a personal friend of my family.  He was on-site in his official capacity and his prospects are grim.   

Brad -- my daughter has been working on me to move to St. Paul for years.  As I get older the invite gets more appealing.

 Uh , isn't St Paul way colder than Sitka ? Hope the fire marshal is OK . If not , give his family and the other Sitkaites , hmm , Siktonians  My best . Keep us informed , please .

  Dusty

[oldbike54]

That would be a queer Ark

 Quark ?

  Dusty

[Matteo]

Hope your place makes it, best wishes for a Jem of a town.

[rodekyll]

I'm slowly getting replies to my phone messages.  Outbound landlines have been affected and some were evacuated, but so far everyone reports that although it's a mess, damage outside of the actual slide and flood areas is not too bad.  Some are saying the wind damage to their properties is worse than the flooding.  One lost his boat when water killed his batteries so his pumps didn't work.  A 'few' cars got swept away and sunk, but it wasn't as extensive as early reports had me believe.  The consensus is that the event is over, but the S&R effort to find Bill and the others (known missing reduced to 3) will be slow because that slide is still moving.  The Coast Guard mobilized with helicopters and feet almost immediately to help.  Those guys are really something!  It will be a while before the infrastructure damage is assessed and the safety of roads is determined.  For now the highways outbound from the town center are closed.  The wshed out roads were just completed earlier this month after three years of construction -- wiped down to bedrock in a couple of hours.

So while it's horrific, it could have been worse.  We'll bury our dead, clean it up and move on.

Yes, St Paul was miserable hot when I got here, and the winters are brutal here compared to Sitka.  For those of you in the area, today in St Paul was typical 'hot' Sitka weather -- constant rain, not much wind, and low 60s.  One of the advantages of being the last bit of dry land before China is that the Japan current keeps our weather very mild (although constantly wet).  With the exception of these typhoon events it can be boring.

[lucydad]

roadK,

Oh man.  Blessings for one of my favorite parts of the Great Land, and her inhabitants.  Sheesh.  We never had storms like that in Anchorage that I recall.  The Coast Guard are quality, and hopefully they can help out.   

[rodekyll]

It seems everyone is accounted for except the three confirmed missing.  Cadaver dogs found one that has been recovered.  They think the dogs have located the other two, but they can't get to them yet.