State and local officials are hiring a consultant to assess ongoing hazards in Haines caused by a landslide that swept across Beach Road. Meanwhile, some displaced residents say they’re still cut off from their properties and in the dark about what comes next.
Todd and Amber Winkel walk past a roadblock and up a snowy hill to where the slide came down across Beach Road. They’re making their way across the landslide on foot to check on their property.
It’s been over a month since it swept across the road, killing two people, destroying three homes and forcing dozens of residents to evacuate. Debris still blocks the road and homes have been cut off from the power grid.
Todd Winkel says that without electricity and road access, he and his neighbors struggle to return to their homes and keep them from deteriorating.
“We have to carry gas cans across. Our neighbors in their 70’s have to walk this,” Winkel says. “We have people without vehicles, people staying in small apartments — real small apartments that they aren’t used to. And no schedule, no plan.”
The Haines Borough closed the 2,000 foot stretch of Beach Road affected by the slide due to safety concerns. Initially, it threatened to prosecute anyone entering the closed area. After meeting with residents, Mayor Douglas Olerud decided that Beach Road residents may cross — but only at their own risk.
Over the past month, homeowners have made trips by boat and on foot to maintain their property, collect belongings, or just spend the night in their own bed. Winkel, like many other Beach Road residents, wants to clear a path for a temporary road to make access easier and safer.
“We’re putting people at risk every time we try and do stuff out here and we’re not doing it the safest way we possibly can because they won’t allow us to punch a road. We have to figure out the least risky way to help these people return to their lives and help them save their property. Doing nothing is not an acceptable answer,” Winkel says.
Local contractors say they are up to the task and have offered to do the work for free.
Right now, the Haines Borough and Alaska Department of Transportation are contracting a geotechnical engineering consultant to assess the landslide hazard and see if a temporary road is even feasible right now.
Aerial surveys of the slide revealed a large crack in the hillside above Beach Road. During a meeting to update Beach Road residents last week, Deanne Stevens with the Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys said there are still a lot of questions about what kind of risk it poses.
“At this point, with the little bit of data that we have, we can’t say if it’s towards the smaller end of the possible spectrum or towards the larger end. We also don’t know if it does fail, what’s the actual nature of how it will fail? Which way will it tip if it goes? Will it go down the same route as the Beach Road slide or will it go off to the south?” Stevens said.
Over the next few months, the plan is to have the consultant develop a report on the slide area to inform decisions about restoring road access, re-occupying homes and resuming the search for two residents who were swept by the slide and have yet to be found.
Many Beach Road residents say they are frustrated by a lack of communication with officials charged with making crucial decisions about the future of their homes. Winkel says he doesn’t know what the criteria is for determining when their neighborhood is safe again.
“We’ve already been told it’s unsafe and we know that there is a crack in the ground up there. From our perspective if you know there is something unsafe, you don’t study it for a year while people are crossing underneath it. You take mitigative actions and you take care of the risk. Our concern is that we could study this thing forever and still never be able to say it’s safe and what have we gained?” Winkel says. “In the meantime, we live in limbo.”
DOT officials say that the consultant will complete the first phase of its fieldwork in about six weeks. At that point, information may be available to help the borough make a decision about temporary road access for vehicles.
