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Copyright © 2024 CGTN. 京ICP备20000184号
Disinformation report hotline: 010-85061466
A landslide cut a path down a steep, thickly forested hillside and crashed into several homes in Ketchikan, killing one person and injuring three in the latest such disaster to strike mountainous southeast Alaska in the United States.
The aftermath of a deadly landslide is seen in Ketchikan, Alaska, USA, August 25, 2024. /CFP
The landslide on Sunday afternoon prompted a mandatory evacuation of nearby homes in the city, a popular cruise ship stop along the famed Inside Passage in the Alaska panhandle. The slope remained unstable on Monday, and authorities said that state and local geologists were arriving to assess the potential for further slides.
Last November, six people—including a family of five—were killed when a landslide destroyed two homes in Wrangell, about 100 miles (161 kilometers) to the north. Torrential rains were the cause of landslides that killed two people in Haines in 2020 and three people in Sitka in 2015.
"In my 65 years in Ketchikan, I have never seen a slide of this magnitude," Ketchikan Mayor Dave Kiffer said in a statement. "With the slides we have seen across the region, there is clearly a region-wide issue that we need to try to understand with the support of our state geologist."
The landslide followed a weekend of heavy rain amid an abnormally dry August, said Andrew Park, a meteorologist in Juneau with the National Weather Service. Early Monday, the weather service reported that Ketchikan had received about 2.6 inches (66 millimeters) of rain in approximately 36 hours, while rainfall totals at higher elevations nearby ranged from 5 to 9 inches (127 to 229 millimeters).
Landslides can be unpredictable, but this one occurred without certain other risk factors, such as high winds, Park noted.
Ketchikan is surrounded by the Tongass National Forest, a temperate rainforest that encompasses much of southeast Alaska. Landslides frequently occur in the region but receive little notice when they strike remote, unpopulated areas.
However, as climate change intensifies storms and destabilizes soil, landslides pose greater risks to communities.
Due to the steep terrain, there is limited room for development in the region, and cities and roads are often built at the base of slopes. Increasingly, landslides are occurring in inhabited areas with "old infrastructure that's been built in harm's way," said Aaron Jacobs, a meteorologist and senior service hydrologist with the National Weather Service's Juneau office.
"It's just becoming more and more common that they're impacting people," Jacobs said.
Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy declared an emergency for Ketchikan.
Landslides include debris flows often triggered by heavy rains. When logging or fires destroy trees, the loss of root structures can weaken the soil. Rain that isn't absorbed by plants can saturate the ground, making it more likely to slide. Other types of landslides include creeps, which move slowly downward, and rock falls.
In Alaska, melting permafrost, retreating glaciers, earthquakes, and heavy rains can all trigger landslides.
(Cover: A worker clears debris after a deadly landslide in Ketchikan, Alaska, USA, August 25, 2024. /CFP)