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Evacuation in Anchorage, Alaska after 80ft deep avalanche

An evacuation was ordered in a suburb of Alaska’s largest city after an avalanche plowed through a residential neighbourhood, while another slide was considered imminent.

Residents were told to leave the Hiland Road area in Eagle River, on the city’s outskirts, this weekend. The avalanche has cut off access to about 100 homes, and some have lost power. No one has been reported missing and no injuries were reported. The damage to properties is still being assessed.

Emergency responders cut a trail to reach stranded residents and were removing people in snowmobile shuttles, said Assistant Anchorage Fire Chief Alex Boyd, the incident commander.

“To protect the lives and property of residents impacted by the avalanche on Hiland Road I issued a disaster declaration this morning ensure every Municipal resource is utilized & ready to deploy,” Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson tweeted on Saturday. “Our highest priority remains the safety of our friends & neighbors in the area.”

Both the mayor and Alaska’s Governor Mike Dunleavy were at the scene on Sunday. Mayor Bronson reported that mitigation efforts had been carried out but that significant risks remained.

Among the mitigation efforts was a plan to drop explosives by helicopter to instigate a controlled avalanche.

The first avalanche had come down the mountainside shortly before midnight on Thursday, leaving an estimated 80 feet-deep layer of snow over the main road. Only about half the snow in the slide zone was released and experts say they expect a second avalanche.

Avalanches are common in the Chugach Mountains which form a dramatic backdrop to Anchorage, Alaska’s largest city with a population of about 300,000 people.

However local officials said that this avalanche was unprecedented, describing it as a “once-in-a-hundred-year event’.

t will take several weeks to remove the snow, and without intervention, the area would likely remain cut off until summer.

Xural.com

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