Story by Anna Canny/KTOO
Update Thursday 11 am:
Alaska State Troopers have changed the search and rescue status from an active search to a reactive search. Search and rescue crews have scanned all areas around the slide that are accessible with heavy machinery, and have been unable to locate the missing individuals.
Efforts to clear the roadway have begun with the help of the Alaska Department of transportation and local contractors. Search and rescue teams will continue to to search search for people who may be buried in the mud as slide clean-up continues. The goal for the time being is to create single lane road access, to allow the power company to restore electricity for households south of the slide zone.
The initial objective is to create one lane road access. This will allow the power company to restore power poles within the slide zone and reconnect power out the road.
“While the active search is concluding, it remains a priority of the State of Alaska and your Alaska State Troopers to locate the three missing Alaskans so we can bring closure to their families and the community,” The Alaska Department of Public Safety wrote in a statement this afternoon.
The names of the dead, and the missing, will be made public on Friday.
Original Story:
Search teams in Wrangell have returned to the site of a fatal landslide that came down across Zimovia Highway this week, to continue their search for three missing people.
Teams have already recovered three dead — two adults and a child — and one survivor, a woman who was on the top floor of her hillside home when the slide came down late Monday night. She is currently receiving medical care, according to the Alaska Department of Public Safety.
But three people — an adult and two children — are still missing. Austin McDaniel, Communications Officer for the Alaska Department of Public Safety, said crews will continue their work throughout the holiday.
“We’re going to run down every single area that needs to be searched, that can be searched today,” McDaniel said. “And then re-evaluate some of the search strategies and tactics a little later this morning, to determine what next steps will be.”
While Alaska State Troopers are leading the search efforts, the team also includes local Wrangell police and firefighters, along with state personnel from the Alaska Department of Transportation and the Department of Natural Resources.
Jeremey Zidek, public information officer for the state Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, said a state geologist made a helicopter flight over the slide site today to make sure it was stable enough for rescue teams.
“Everyday that landslide is changing,” Zidek said. “And when we’re sending crews out there we obviously want to do that work as quickly as possible, but we don’t want to add to the tragedy.”
Zidek also said a state emergency management expert is on the ground in Wrangell to help coordinate landslide response across state and local agencies.
At the slide site, search and rescue dogs will be searching atop the slide debris and from small boats along the shore where the slide ran off into the water.
“Every resource that the state has at its disposal, that is needed in a Wrangell, has been sent to Wrangell,” McDaniel said.
