After the 11-Mile landslide missed their home by about 600 feet on Nov. 20, Mandy Simpson and her family have been faced with a barrage of decisions — none of which are easy to make.
On top of the pressures of evacuation, and of attempting to prove to the state that her household merits financial assistance, Simpson has to figure out what to do with her home. Living under a potentially landslide-prone slope — especially with a child and another one on the way — is too stressful, she explained. “I don’t want to run out of the house every time it rains.”
That said, Simpson isn’t enthusiastic about selling a place that she doesn’t feel is safe. “Maybe someone will buy it if I list it dirt cheap,” she said. “I don’t feel comfortable living in it or selling it. … I don’t want anyone to get hurt. Maybe someone else would be comfortable there, but with two kids, I’m not risking my life and their lives.”
Until she has more information about state aid, longer-term housing and the stability of the hill, it’s “just a big waiting game.”
Stephen Todd and Amber Al-Haddad have lived just south of the slide site for 20 years.
Though the pair plans to keep a close eye on the land above their home, the potential for future slides isn’t their primary focus. “It’s been hard for us to process much other than the loss of our dear friends and neighbors,” said Todd, who spent weeks sifting through debris at 11-Mile as part of the search and rescue team.
As a biologist, he’s encountered landslides before while working on the Stikine River, and understands that they are natural processes. This particular slide, however, “happened in a very, very terrible place,” he said.
“Those of us that live in Southeast Alaska, that spend a lot of time in the woods, on the land, with a good understanding of the natural world that we live in, this is a risk that we chose to take living under a mountain,” Todd continued. “These mountains are not at the angle of repose.”
For now, all the pair can do is wait, watch and “(make) very informed decisions,” he said. “There is no magic bullet, technological quick fix that will prevent these things in the future.”
Adrienne McLaughlin lives at 3-Mile, but after a sinkhole opened up near her property and she noticed new slide activity on the hill above her house, she temporarily relocated to a friend’s place in town.
At home, “we don’t sleep at all,” she said. “And we don’t want to leave our homes and it’s hard to find somewhere.”
“The tough part is that nobody can really say, ‘yes, it’s safe,’” she added.
Landslide risk is a reality in Southeast and people’s willingness to live near a steep slope “really comes down to a personal decision,” said geologist Barrett Salisbury at a Nov. 25 town hall.
For McLaughlin, moving has been particularly difficult during the holidays, when “you should be focusing on putting up a tree, not one coming through your home.”
She and her partner are making safety plans, watching the weather and taking note of any changes to the land around their house. But despite the stress and uncertainty, they are grateful for the strength of the Wrangell community. “If I lived in the Lower 48 … I would never feel as safe and secure, like ‘my community has got us,’” she said. “I do feel like everything is going to be okay.”
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