Alaska
Listen: After Disaster, Alaska Town Turns To Science
On August 18, 2015, in Sitka, Alaska, a slope above a subdivision of houses below building gave approach. This landslide demolished a constructing and killed three individuals. Particles flows have gotten more and more possible in wet Southeast Alaska, because the local weather adjustments and triggers extra excessive precipitation occasions.
Within the months following the landslide, locals had been anxious in regards to the rain and desperate to make some sense of the catastrophe. The Sitka Sound Science Heart (SSSC) began calling scientists, asking learn how to forestall a tragedy like this from ever occurring once more.
Seven years later, SSSC has unveiled a web-based warning system designed to be science-backed and user-friendly at sitkalandslide.org. The mission took cross-agency collaboration, a $2.1 million grant from the Nationwide Science Basis, and the involvement of a whole city. How did all of it come collectively?
For NPR’s Shortwave, Emily Kwong recounts the story of the Kramer Avenue landslide and talks with scientists and residents about how they carried out an early warning system to stop a future catastrophe.
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