How one Southeast town is working toward a landslide warning system On Aug. 18, 2015 more than 40 landslides fell across Baranof and Chichagof Islands. The largest slide destroyed homes and killed three men in Sitka. Similar to Haines, rapid, heavy rains overwhelmed and saturated the soil structure. Within days of the slides, a group […]
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Messages of support and donations pour into Chilkat Valley
Hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations and supplies have entered Haines in the wake of the Dec. 2 landslide, including roughly $450,000 raised by seven Gofundme accounts, some for specific residents and others for the general recovery effort. The largest campaign, “Haines, Alaska Disaster Relief,” raised $218,950 in the eight days immediately following the […]
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EOC opens southernmost part of Beach Road
Residents at the southernmost end of Beach Road can return home after state geologists downgraded the area from a mandatory evacuation zone to a site to “monitor for future concern.” The determination was made based on computer modeling of potential slide paths if the fractured rock at the top of the Beach Road slide area […]
Posted inNews, Housing
Evacuees worry about homes and when they will be able to return safely
After the Dec. 2 Beach Road landslide, more than 50 Haines residents were displaced when neighborhoods including Beach Road and the Piedad-Cathedral View area were evacuated due to landslide risk. On Saturday, additional residents elected to evacuate after an area stretching from Piedad to Picture Point was advised to prepare for a possible evacuation. “I […]
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Upper Mount Riley Road houses evacuated based on available data
Piedad-Cathedral View evacuation lifted Houses on upper Mount Riley Road are now under mandatory evacuation. On Tuesday, the Haines Borough Emergency Operations Center (EOC) refined landslide areas of concern based on data collected by state geologists and crowdsourced from residents over the past few days. The EOC has created three categories to describe landslide risk: “be prepared,” […]
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Governor makes state assistance available for infrastructure repairs
State and federal assistance for homeowners rebuilding remains uncertain On Dec. 5, Gov. Mike Dunleavy signed a disaster declaration for Southeast Alaska after flooding and landslides damaged roads, public facilities and private property from Ketchikan to Haines. The disaster declaration will make state assistance available for public infrastructure repairs and is the first step in […]
Posted inNews, Public Safety
Floods, slides pummel Haines, rebuilding begins
The skies cleared Wednesday after a week of rain that kept instabilities in the landscape active and a ground search for missing residents on standby. After days marked by uncertainty, loss and grief, some of the roughly 50 displaced families moved back home. The disaster, caused by record-setting rainfall that began last Tuesday, was precipitated […]
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Residents battle flooding, mudslides, sinkholes during record-breaking storm
Chilkat Valley residents woke to widespread flooding and mudslides on Dec. 2 after the weather station at the airport recorded 5.49 inches of rain on Dec. 1, a new record for rainfall in a 24-hour period. Between Nov. 30 and Dec. 1, the weather station received 8.63 inches of rain. “I watched my shoes float […]
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Upper Mount Riley Road houses evacuated based on available geoscience data
Houses on upper Mount Riley Road are now under mandatory evacuation. On Tuesday, the Haines Borough Emergency Operations Center (EOC) refined landslide areas of concern based on data collected by state geologists and crowdsourced from residents over the past few days. The EOC has created three categories to describe landslide risk: “be prepared,” “elevated alert,” and “evacuate,” […]
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Consumers to pay more at checkout next year after AML increases shipping rates
Prices in stores throughout Haines are likely to rise beginning Jan. 31 when Alaska Marine Lines (AML) increases shipping rates in Southeast by 5%. The increase will reflect an 8.75% total increase since January 2020. “The freight weight is definitely a factor in price. We take the freight rate we’re charged and add that into […]