Recovery work began on Monday in Ketchikan after a landslide damaged the Ward Cove electrical substation, with initial repair estimates of up to $1.59 million, Alaska's News Source reports.
The city and borough declared a joint emergency on Friday, saying the cost is beyond what the local utility, KPU, and the city can cover. Power has been rerouted through two other substations, but officials warned that relying on this for more than a few months could lead to further outages, especially in the North Tongass area. On Saturday, harbour staff also found that heavy water flow had caused part of a bank to collapse into the sea.
State transport geologists were due on Monday to assess the unstable site, with debris removal expected from Tuesday. An emergency operations centre has opened at the fire department.
Source: Alaska's News Source
Photo: Ketchikan, Alaska, Estados Unidos, 2017-08-16, DD 43 by Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Illustrative image of Ketchikan.
