Ketchikan City Council advances resolution marking two years since fatal landslide

Ketchikan marked two years since the White Cliff landslide on Tuesday, with a community remembrance and the unveiling of a plaque.

The slide came down about 4 pm on Aug. 25, 2024, off a steep forested hillside above the Third Avenue Bypass. It killed one person, injured three and destroyed homes in the neighborhood below.

That weekend brought about two and a half inches of rain at lower elevations and as much as nine inches higher up. Gov. Mike Dunleavy declared a state of emergency, and FEMA declared a major disaster that November, naming the Ketchikan Gateway Borough the only area eligible for public assistance and hazard mitigation money. Crews hauled out more than 100 loads of debris.

The City Council approved a resolution marking the anniversary at its Aug. 20 meeting.

Ketchikan is not alone in this. A U.S. Geological Survey inventory counts 162 landslides reported in Southeast Alaska news coverage between 1990 and 2024, across Ketchikan, Juneau, Haines, Sitka, Petersburg, Wrangell and Prince of Wales Island.

Sandra West showed a photograph of the Ketchikan slide to a U.S. House Natural Resources subcommittee in May 2025. "We have some evidence that landslides are increasing in frequency," she said.