Fritz Creek is recovering from a landslide earlier this week. Dan Nelson is the emergency manager for the Kenai Peninsula Borough, and he said the borough received reports of a landslide on Fritz Creek Valley Road off East End Road mid-afternoon Tuesday.
“It was determined when the roads department arrived on scene that there was approximately a 100-foot-long landslide of mud, water and debris that came down from the hill near that road and blocked the road,” he said.
Nelson said there have been no reports of any injuries or property damage resulting from the slide.
Nelson said a response team was able to clear the road around 8 p.m. Tuesday. However, he said there is still debris and mud falling on the road and a crew is working to clean it up.
The landslide comes roughly a week after the borough declared a state of emergency due to significant flooding in the Seward area. Nelson said it’s unclear if the landslide could be included in the emergency declaration because the borough doesn’t know if the incident was solely related to recent rains.
“If it was strictly related to rain then that could potentially be included because perhaps this was something that was building up over time,” he said. “But the other issue might be, for instance, this was building up, waterlog and soils, perhaps over the whole fall, which would be outside the specific date window of what caused the declaration.”
Nelson advised drivers to be aware while driving on the road.
“Perhaps there might be some debris in the road there that hadn't been cleaned up or something new that had come down," he said.
Nelson said once the area is clear, the borough will conduct a full assessment and will determine the cause of the slide.
