July 13, 2023, by Lisa Teas Conaway

Sitka’s topography lends itself to majestic scenes, but also carries with it innate risks. With our steep mountain sides and heavy rainfall, landslides are a very real risk, made starkly evident in the summer of 2015. After very heavy rainfall over 40 landslides occurred across Baranof and Chichagof Island resulting in the loss of three lives. This tragic event was a catalyst for change and a community Geo Task Force was created in the fall of 2015. The Geo Task Force supported the assembly of Sitka leaders and landslide experts to help create a landslide risk dashboard specifically for Sitka. 

The Sitka landslide team acts as an information conduit between members and helps to pursue innovative solutions; including addressing the sudden lack of landslide insurance options for local Sitka homeowners. A paper, co-authored by our lead geoscientist Annette Patton, PhD, in June 2023 looks at our local landslide insurance issues, and how they have evolved over the past decade. The authors describe four possible approaches that could help to make landslide coverage more readily available, benefiting both individuals and our communities at large.

You can read the entire insurance paper here.

 

With support from the National Science Foundation, landslide research and hazard mitigation has continued and expanded from the Sitka landslide research team into the region wide Ḵutí project. In partnership with Tribal governments in six Southeast communities, this collaborative team is developing natural hazard warning systems and other risk reduction tools. You can read more about the Ḵutí project here.