Search & Rescue

For some of the young Tuluksak volunteers, this is their first time looking for a missing body.

Alaska State Troopers report that the body of Nick Garner, 39, was found last Wednesday, four days after a skiff laden with a snowmachine in its bow hit a large wave and overturned with three men aboard.

Two men, Peter Sallaffie and Joseph Hale, drove into an unmarked open hole in the ice near Tuluksak. The loss marks the first deaths to open water along the Kuskokwim River this winter.

Troopers say local residents have been unable to search for Nicholas Garner, who is still missing, due to a winter storm. Search efforts will resume once the storm clears.

From a group of volunteers working to salvage a woman’s home to a hotel reopening to offer a safe place to stay, the people of Haines are showing they can lean on each other.

Joe Aultman-Moore was sitting in his cabin in Haines last Wednesday when a large landslide swept through several neighboring houses. Aultman-Moore spoke with KHNS about what he saw during his rescue from the slide area.

“We didn’t open this summer,” said the Hotel Halsingland’s owner. “But I guess we’re opening this winter instead.”

Snow, ice and then rain complicated the efforts in Haines of city and state crews that have been working to clear roads of landslides and debris, because most of them spent the morning clearing snow before they could get to work. 

State geologists on Saturday said the ground was too unstable and recommended that search crews stay away from the slide zone.

Two teams searched debris that washed onto miles of shoreline north of the slide. Juneau Mountain Rescue and two dog teams stand by at the slide site, waiting for the green light from geologists to begin the land search.