Ketchikan city employee who was clearing storm drains on his day off died in landslide

KETCHIKAN — Daniel McGilton was in his downtown Ketchikan home, getting ready to make dinner on a stormy Sunday afternoon. He wasn’t overly concerned hearing what sounded like a “really strong gust of wind.”

“But then all of a sudden, the whole house started shaking. And then we see the power line going to the house — like it stretches, but then it bounces back and hits the house,” he said.

A power line lay across the street. Nearby, tons of earth and trees had slid hundreds of feet down a steep hill, “critically” damaging four homes, local officials said. After calling to confirm it was safe to cross the downed power line, McGilton, his wife and their five children evacuated.

The Third Avenue landslide struck a densely populated neighborhood in Ketchikan just after 4 p.m. Sunday. One person was confirmed dead: 42-year-old Sean Griffin, a city public works employee who was in the area clearing stormwater drains on a day off from work.

It was “with deep sadness” that Ketchikan Gateway Borough announced the death of “one of our own.” The 17-year employee who started working for the city as a solid waste collector had died as a senior maintenance technician, officials said. He was 42 and leaves behind a wife and four sons.

Dial said Griffin’s body was recovered from a vehicle on Monday. Another occupant of the vehicle with Griffin was taken to the Ketchikan Medical Center, he added.

[Timeline: A decade of deadly and destructive Alaska landslides]

Two other people were taken to the hospital. One person was treated and released Sunday. On Monday evening, borough officials said they did not know the status of those who were hospitalized for longer.

Authorities were busy Monday checking the slope’s stability for the risks of another landslide. Another small slide on a nearby ridge had been reported, but no property damage or injuries were reported, borough officials said.

Damage to homes close to the much larger slide area was being assessed, and plans were being made to clear tons of debris, officials said. Some power poles in the most heavily impacted areas were still down Monday.

”We’re transitioning into the recovery phase,” said Rodney Dial, mayor of the Ketchikan Gateway Borough, in a brief interview. “There’s no belief that we have anybody that’s missing.”

‘Is this real?’

The landslide came as a surprise to many living in a neighborhood on a steep slope that overlooks the Tongass Narrows. Some described the experience as terrifying — a sudden and loud roar or rumble.

[‘Just terrifying’: As Ketchikan residents take stock after fatal landslide, geologists assess stability]

Robert Piñon was asleep after working a shift at the airport as an air traffic controller. His wife thought a big plane had flown close to their house, but he was confused — no flights had been scheduled. He stepped outside to see the devastation less than a quarter of a mile from his apartment block. Two houses were bent over and were touching each other. Another looked completely destroyed, he said.

“I was kind of just stuck in an awe feeling. Like, is this real? Is this really happening? This is one of those situations — it feels almost surreal. It’s very devastating,” he said.

State geologists will work to determine what triggered the landslide that was roughly 1,100 feet long and 250 feet wide at its widest point. In the past decade, 12 people have died in Alaska landslides, starting in Sitka in 2015 when three people were killed.

Gabriel Wolken, a geologist and the manager of the state’s climate and cryosphere hazards program, said the landslide appeared to be shallow, which would be similar to recent deadly slides in Wrangell and Haines. But he said it was too early to determine a cause.

Torrential rain and high winds have often preceded landslides in Southeast Alaska in recent years. A storm hit Ketchikan on Sunday, but it wasn’t especially notable for a city famed for its bad weather.

Spencer Fielding, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Juneau, said that 2.5 inches of rain was recorded on Sunday at Ketchikan International Airport — a rainy day but far from the rainiest Aug. 25, in 1961, when 7.9 inches of rain fell on Ketchikan, he added.

Fielding said Sunday’s storm did follow an unusually dry August for Ketchikan, which is in drought. He said the city had recorded around 3 inches of rain in August, with most of it falling on Sunday — far from the 8 inches of rainfall considered to be normal for August.

Wolken said it was too early to conclude whether an extended period of dry weather in Ketchikan had contributed to the slope giving way.

“Precipitation, winds, so on can influence the development of landslides; permafrost, vegetation, human activities and even earthquakes — what this is really painting is a really complex picture of how landslides can develop. And so, we can’t always just have a prescribed trigger mechanism,” he said.

‘People have been fantastic’

Ketchikan High School should have been filled with students returning on Monday for the first day of the school year. Instead, it was being used as a shelter.

Superintendent Michael Robbins said the plan is to reopen schools across Ketchikan on Thursday — at the earliest. But that would be determined by whether a shelter was still needed, he said.

“We’ll hold off until they feel comfortable,” he said about those displaced by the landslide.

School officials said local Ketchikan residents had arrived at the high school Sunday evening to donate food, clothes and other items. The school’s atrium was filled with tables stacked high with supplies.

“People have been fantastic, and they’ve been fantastic immediately,” said Ketchikan High School Principal Rick Dormer.

Residents of First Avenue were allowed to return home on Monday. A mandatory evacuation was in place until further notice for those living on nearby streets. Power had been restored to most areas, borough officials said.

Around 60 households were forced to evacuate on Sunday. Residents of First Avenue were allowed to return home on Monday. A mandatory evacuation was still in place for those living on nearby streets, officials said.

Most of those displaced by the landslide had other places to go, but around a dozen people needed to shelter in the high school Sunday night. The same number was expected to stay at the high school Monday night, Dial said.

On the menu for those families was chicken enchiladas, refried beans, local greens, chips, and salsa. Chef Austin Green from the Alaska Fish House came to cook and said he wanted to prepare “a comforting Mexican meal” for those who had been displaced.

McGilton and his family have lived in Ketchikan for around a month after moving from Metlakatla. He said their house did not have obvious structural damage. They were grateful for the help and felt comfortable staying overnight in a classroom usually used to teach Spanish, he said.

“Everyone has been so nice. Everyone has been so supportive,” said Piñon, who was similarly grateful.

Piñon’s apartment is undamaged, but it is in an evacuation zone with concerns about additional landslides. He said the family has no plans to move, but a landslide was “a new, unlocked fear.” A well-traveled veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, Piñon moved to Ketchikan less than two years ago from California. He said the beauty of Alaska “takes your breath away,” but there’s another side, too.

“Some days — beautiful days — and then there’s ugly days,” he said.