Debris hampering search for men missing in Alaska landslide

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- The instability of landslide debris is delaying a search Wednesday for three men believed to have been buried at a neighborhood construction site in a rain-saturated southeast Alaska town.

The plan is for crews in Sitka to use heavy equipment to clear a ditch to divert away stream water that is washing over the debris to stabilize the ground, according to Jeremy Zidek, a spokesman for the state Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.

"We don't want to put additional people in harm's way and compound the problem," he said.

City officials have identified the three missing people as city building inspector and fire marshal William Stortz, 62, and construction workers, brothers Elmer Diaz, 26, and Ulises Diaz, 25.

Gov. Bill Walker was touring the slide in a Coast Guard helicopter Wednesday morning and planned to then take a ground tour, as well as meet with relatives of the missing men. A geologist is expected on-scene later Wednesday.

No other injuries have been reported from six landslides that crashed into different parts of the city Tuesday morning after 2 1/2 inches of rain fell in 24 hours.

City officials are considering the search as a body recovery effort rather than a rescue.

Chris Harshey, who is a carpenter, was working on a nearby home when the slide occurred Tuesday morning.

"All of a sudden, I heard crackling and crumbling, and then the lights flickered," he told the Daily Sitka Sentinel.

Harshey went outside to investigate and saw "a sea of large logs, mud, more logs and a slurry of muddy debris." The slide destroyed a home about 200 yards above him and damaged another home closer to him.

The entire landslide lasted about four minutes, he said.

Sitka resident Mike Finn says this is more rainfall than he's ever seen.

"I've lived here a long time, and I can't remember anything like this happening," Finn told CBS News affiliate KTVA. "We've had our share of rainfall and we've had our mudslides and stuff like that but nothing this severe."

One of the newly built homes was destroyed in the landslide, and another was damaged, Sitka fire spokeswoman Sara Peterson said. Some other homes in the area were evacuated, but Peterson did not know how many residences or people were affected.

Homes in town have been flooded, and there were reports of residents not being able to reach their homes or leave their neighborhood, Zidek said.

Longtime Sitka resident Nolan Simpson said he toured parts of town and saw one home where the driveway was gone, replaced by a stream washing through it. He passed the Indian River and said it was roaring.

The landslide at the construction site was especially heartbreaking, he said.

"It's pretty devastating on how fast something like this can happen," Simpson, a retired commercial fisherman, said in a phone interview from a saloon.

The city of more than 9,000 people declared a state of emergency.

Sitka, almost 600 miles southeast of Anchorage, sees heavy rain throughout the year. More rain was expected.

Heavy rain was blamed for a major landslide in September near the town that wiped out hundreds of thousands of dollars in watershed-restoration projects. The rain also damaged a footbridge and trails, including one that had been repaired after flooding in January 2014.

A year earlier, two people at a U.S. Forest Service cabin near Sitka escaped moments before part of a mountain slid down.