Southeast Alaska is prone to landslides. That’s because of the area’s heavy rain and the geology of the landscape – steep, forested mountains. There have been deadly slides in Sitka, Haines, and Wrangell in the last decade.
Now former assembly member Jeff Meucci has organized a science talk in Petersburg about landslide warning systems. He said he’s concerned about slides in the area.
“I think Petersburg has the same amount of risk that Haines, Sitka, and Wrangell, and other communities have,” he said.
After a landslide in Sitka killed three people in 2015, the Sitka Sound Science Center developed a landslide warning system for the town. Lisa Busch is director of the non-profit. She will be in Petersburg next week to talk about that warning system, and the science of landslides.
Landslides are more likely in heavy rain. But the precise location of a slide is nearly impossible to predict, because it’s affected by geology, vegetation, and hydrology. Busch said that top-down landslide warning systems run the risk of creating warning fatigue – when warnings start to feel false to people, because a slide didn’t hit their particular area.
“The community starts to not trust the system,” she said.
To address that, Sitka’s system is designed to be user-driven. An app reports risk levels and community members decide what level of risk they’re comfortable with.
The day after Petersburg’s science talk, Busch will lead a community work session to look at the possibility of Petersburg creating its own warning system. She said getting locals involved in the decision making process is important to the success of the project.
“You gotta involve the community in developing these kinds of warning systems,” she said. “And it’s got to reflect community values and community member sense of risk, and where, and what we want to have warning systems about.”
The Sitka Sound Science Center is now working with six Tribal villages in Southeast Alaska to create community-specific warning systems for those towns.
The science talk is Wednesday, January 17th at 6:30 p.m. The work session is Thursday, January 18th from 11 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. Both will be held at the Petersburg Public Library and are open to the public.
