‘Here it comes.’ Huge landslide buries Alaska road with trees and debris, video shows
A landslide buried a roadway in Alaska with huge trees and debris, video shows.
The May 7 landslide blocked the only road to Lowell Point, an area popular for camping, whale watching and lodging at cabins.
Christel Arnold caught it all on camera.
Arnold was staying in a cabin in Lowell Point with a friend after the two went on a “spur of the moment” whale watching trip, she told McClatchy News.
They were driving back to their cabin from Seward, a nearby town, when they saw police had blocked off the road.
A truck had been struck by a boulder, she said, so a person in a front loader was working to remove rocks from the roadway.
As the two were waiting for the road to be cleared, the video shows the front loader back up.
Then someone is heard saying in the video “here it comes” and the mountainside collapsed seconds later.
Huge trees, boulders and debris crashed onto the roadway, narrowly missing the front loader, the video shows.
Arnold said she started running away from the landslide.
“I honestly was afraid because it was a literal domino effect. Those trees just kept coming towards us,” she said.
City declares state of emergency
Seward declared a state of emergency following the incident, according to a May 8 Facebook post.
No one was injured in the landslide, the city said, and utilities were not impacted.
A water taxi service helped people get from one side to the other.
Arnold said she used the service to get their things from the cabin before ending their trip early. And they were able to return their rental car because it wasn’t trapped in Lowell Point.
But those with cars and campers in Lowell Point won’t be able to cross the road yet, Arnold said.
The city assessed the landslide damage on May 8, but it has not posted an update as of May 9.
Lowell Point is about 130 miles south of Anchorage.
This story was originally published May 9, 2022 at 12:38 PM with the headline "‘Here it comes.’ Huge landslide buries Alaska road with trees and debris, video shows."
