Team to inspect potential landslide hazard above Lemon Creek June 10

A team of scientists and stakeholders will hike and investigate a potentially developing landslide hazard on the Lemon Creek side of Thunder Mountain/Heintzelman Ridge this Thursday morning, June 10. The group includes representatives from the National Weather Service, Ground Truth Alaska, and the City and Borough of Juneau Emergency Programs Division and Community Development Department. Following the explorative assessment, the group will answer questions from the media in the Dzantik’i Heeni Middle School parking lot at 11 a.m.

The Lemon Creek side of Thunder Mountain/Heintzelman Ridge is a newly identified potentially unstable slope that was found through a landslide study in Prince William Sound. As part of that research, a cursory overview of the state was conducted to flag other areas of concern. Twenty locations were identified – including the ridge above Lemon Creek – as warranting further investigation to see if they are active concerns or simply historic slide locations. Because this is a newly identified issue, there is no information yet on how severe the hazard is.

“There’s a long history of slides in Southeast and this area, and if we determine there is a hazard, it could affect developed areas in Lemon Creek,” CBJ Emergency Programs Manager Tom Mattice said. “The goal of Thursday’s hike is to visit the area and start evaluating the situation.”

The team on Thursday will specifically investigate two large landslide deposits at the base of the slope.

For more information, contact CBJ Emergency Programs Manager Tom Mattice at 586-0419 or [email protected].