5:30 Update:
Portions of Sitka have been evacuated and the number of missing people has been adjusted to three men.
Sitka Fire Department spokesperson Sarah Peterson said search efforts will continue until dark for 62-year-old William Stortz, 26-year-old Elmer Diaz, and 25-year-old Ulises Diaz.
Sortz is Sitka’s city building official.
Those search efforts will resume in the morning.
4:30 pm Update:
Governor Bill Walker announced this afternoon he will be traveling to Sitka Wednesday after the city declared a State of Emergency due to three landslides caused by heavy rains.
Original Post:
Heavy rains caused three landslides in Sitka Tuesday and emergency personnel are searching for four missing people.
The landslides and one sinkhole appeared after the area received over 2 1/2 inches of rain in 24 hours.
The city has declared a state of emergency.
Sitka fire spokeswoman Sara Peterson says the missing people were all in one neighborhood hit by a landslide but it is unknown if they were all together when it occurred.
Earlier this morning an office building just outside of town was evacuated because of it’s proximity to one of the landslildes.
Rain is continuing to fall in Sitka and is expected to continue through Wednesday night.
Sitka experienced a landslide last September that wiped out thousands of dollars in watershed-restoration projects.
In 2013 two people escaped a U.S. Forest Service cabin near Sitka just before a portion of the neighboring mountain slid off and destroyed the structure.
*Photo courtesy of the Alaska Department of Natural Resources*
