City says Eagle River avalanche-mitigation measures were successful; evacuated residents allowed to return

Update, 7:15 p.m.: City officials said Sunday evening that efforts to reduce further avalanche danger above Hiland Road were successful, and said residents who’d been evacuated earlier in the day would be allowed to return. The area was the site of a deep, wide avalanche late Thursday that buried the road, came close to hitting several dwellings and cut off more than 100 homes on the other side of the slide.

A helicopter dropped a series of explosive charges on snowpack above the road late Sunday afternoon. A Daily News photographer heard 10 explosions.

Mayor David Bronson’s office issued a statement Sunday evening saying:

Mitigation efforts for the Hiland Road avalanche are complete and were successful. Safety teams have assessed potential risks for reentry.

Significant risks remain in place until snow clearing operations are complete.

The public will be allowed back in the area affected by the evacuation order effective immediately. We do caution residents from returning to their homes until snow is removed.

Safety risks will be assessed daily until further notice.

Maintenance crews will begin work to remove snow starting tomorrow contingent on daily safety assessments. If conditions remain safe, we anticipate snow removal will take two weeks.

When pressed on details, spokesman Corey Allen Young said, “The incident commander has been given a degree of confidence from the avalanche experts that the area is safe to begin snow removal.”

This is a developing story and will be updated.

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Earlier story:

Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson on Sunday issued an evacuation order for residents in an Eagle River area near a massive avalanche that cut off about 100 homes since late Thursday. Officials began trying to trigger the remaining snowpack on the mountainside above Hiland Road with explosives from a helicopter late in the afternoon, though no additional slides were immediately reported.

Roughly half of the mountain’s snowpack came down in the avalanche, about seven miles up Hiland Road, Municipal Manager Amy Demboski said Sunday. The remaining snow was in danger of coming down on its own, officials said, and they were scrambled to get residents between Milepost 7.0 to 7.9 of Hiland Road out of the area before triggering the remaining snow with explosives dropped from a helicopter.

Snowmachines were used to ferry residents around the avalanche to safety.

As a helicopter flew over the area, a series of explosions were heard from the mountainside. No additional avalanches immediately resulted.

Officials said they hoped to start mitigation Sunday before 8 p.m., before the weather conditions change, said Incident Commander Alex Boyd, assistant chief with the Anchorage Fire Department.

Officials pushed to start the avalanche mitigation Sunday ahead of a storm that was expected to bring snow and increased winds at higher elevations starting in evening.

The mitigation process, using the helicopter and explosives, will most likely take several days, officials said. The city was being assisted by the state in the operation, officials said.

The avalanche, which the city says occurred Thursday around 11:30 p.m., is roughly 300-450 feet wide and about 60-80 feet deep, according to the Anchorage Office of Emergency Management. The mayor issued an emergency disaster declaration on March 26.

On Sunday the city posted the evacuation order and a fact sheet for residents of the area.

“The size of this avalanche is massive,” Demboski said. “It has been described by avalanche experts as a once-in-100-year event.”

Around 100 households remain cut off from main road access and many of these homes still do not have power.

Brendan Castello who was in bed when the avalanche happened said he woke up when the power went out but didn’t pay much attention to it. In the morning when the power didn’t come back he learned about the avalanche and went down to see it.

“I drove down and kind of crested the hill and came around and saw that it was, you know, 40 plus feet, right across the road and thought, ‘Oh, no, we are definitely not going to school today,’” he said. “I realized, ‘Oh, my gosh, it’s gonna be several days.”

Castello used his generator to heat the house and rode his snowmachine to Eagle River to make sure he and his family had supplies.

An emergency evacuation route from West River Drive remains in use with snowmachine support for transport, said in an email Misty Rose Nesvick, public information officer at the Municipality Of Anchorage Emergency Operations Center.

The Red Cross opened a shelter for evacuees at the Harry J. McDonald Memorial Center, but moved it to on-call status on Sunday evening, with volunteers available to reopen it and provide help to residents.

Nesvick said that shelter options for both humans and pets remain in standby mode at this time and are prepared to receive clients when needed.