Alaska Miners Play Key Role in Landslide Response AMA members provide helping hand in Haines
BY LEE LESCHPER It began with a rain that never stopped. Southeast Alaska in early December received rainfall of Biblical, once-in- a-thousand-years proportions. Com - munities like Pelican received more than 12 inches of rain in one night. And the community of Haines took the worst of it. Haines received almost 10 inches of rain over Dec. 1 and 2. On the night of Dec. 2, a steep tree-covered hillside above Beach Road, liquified by simply too much water, collapsed and swept homes, families and lives into the water below. The landslide and bedrock failure left a path of destruction approximately 600 feet wide across the residential street. Nothing in its wide path survived. Two Haines residents, David Sim- mons and Jenae Larson, were swal- lowed by the wall of mud and debris and still have not been found. Ongoing weather compounded the problem by inhibiting travel to Haines. Aircraft were grounded and it was several days before significant help could arrive by boat and helicop- ter. Alaska Air Guard and State Troop- ers were among the first outside help to arrive and played a key role in res- cue efforts. But in the first hours and days, Haines was pretty much taking care of its own. And the need was for ev- erything from clean water and hot food to fuel. Roads were washed out, homes were flooded and much of the community was cut off not just from the world but from each other. Amid this tragedy, Alaska miners stepped up to help care for their neigh- bors. Haines, among other things, is a mining town. So those first on the scene to help included many Alaska miners and AMA members. The AMA chapter there is very ac- tive and includes current and for- mer miners former employees of the
Photo by Rashah McChesney/KTOO Alaska miners lead the search and rescue efforts in the early days of the Haines disaster. Here volunteers gather at the Emergency Operations Center in Haines preparing to search for two people missing.
Kensington and Greens Creek Mines in Southeast Alaska. The local Constan - tine Mine Project is in development. And many of the residents are active placer miners. A retired Kensing- ton engineer now runs the Borough’s public works department. The daughter of a Greens Creek employee was one of those lost in the slide. So how did it happen? Rain percolated into sodden soil and hillsides, increasing weight and pres- sure until they could hold no more. The slope at the Beach Road slide approach- es 50 degrees. It is similar to hillsides elsewhere in Haines and throughout Southeast Alaska communities, where
families are accustomed to the risk of landslides, but the amount of precip- itation and the warmer temperatures brining rain versus snow were ex - tremely anomalous and cause wide- spread damage and hardship. It became immediately obvious that miners knew how to respond and did. Liz Cornejo, a Haines EOC volun - teer and part-time consultant with Constantine, took the lead coordinat - ing the Geo Team of first responders and the community with state geol- ogists who were trying to evaluate the risk of more slides. Through daily meetings and teamwork, connecting
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The Alaska Miner
Winter 2021
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