Power has been restored to part of Elfin Cove after multiple landslides and high winds hit the remote Chichagof Island community on Monday.
Tyler Magart lives in Elfin Cove seasonally and owns a business there. She said a response team from the Alaska Department of Transportation arrived Tuesday morning with a drone to assess the slide activity that can’t be seen from the ground. At sea level, residents are still trying to quantify the damage.
“It almost looks like a tornado came through, because the wind was just ripping the trees down and across things. So there’s one house that was completely obliterated. Several, several trees. We can’t even get to it to see how many… landed on it,” Magart said.
“Another home has one tree on it, another has several (trees) around it, and I think two on it,” she continued. “Those people also lost their shop, completely under a tree, and they also lost their fish house, and they’re fishermen, and have a massive fish house. So it’s a big, big loss.”
The state DOT owns and maintains a harbor, seaplane float and the community’s boardwalks. In an email, spokesperson Angelica Stabs told KCAW that the state will assess the infrastructure as they make plans to repair those facilities. As of Tuesday afternoon, Stabs had not received a report from the three-person team in the field.
Magart said there are at least 15 downed trees on the town’s boardwalk alone. She said, from an aerial view, the state’s response team could see a lot of blown-down trees and some isolated slides, in addition to the landslide that hit the town’s power line.
“It doesn’t look like the hillside, from initial assessment, is as unstable as we were worried about. But there is another slide in a different spot in the back of the cove that’s come over the electrical line down there and covered it over pretty good,” Magart said. “So that, and the boardwalk, the main access for houses back there, basically the state right-of-way.”
While power had been restored to the center of town as of Tuesday afternoon, the southeast side of the cove remained without utilities. Magart said her family hadn’t returned home yet – they were staying with friends in a home with access to power and water.