Work begins to remove Seward landslide blocking Lowell Point

Work began today to remove a landslide blocking Lowell Point Road south of Seward. The slide came down Saturday evening, with trees and debris completely covering the road leading to the community of Lowell Point, the Lowell Point State Recreation Site and the popular Miller’s Landing recreation area.
No one was caught or injured in the slide, but Lowell Point will likely be cut off for a week or more. Lowell Point has a little under 100 year-round residents and the recreational area can have hundreds of visitors as tourism season ramps up.
The city of Seward said the slide was still active Saturday night and Sunday, with police roadblocks keeping anyone from getting too close. City personnel were able to assess the slide Sunday morning. Work began today to create a ramp to the top of the slide and work to clear debris from the top down. Estimates place the roadblock at more than 200 feet deep.
All city utilities are functioning normally out the road past the slide. A shelter was set up at Seward High School for anyone displaced from their homes in Lowell Point. Miller’s Landing is operating a water taxi, shuttling people back and forth from Lowell Point to the Seward Small Boat Harbor. Chance Miller, who owns Miller’s Landing with his brother, said they were able to start ferrying people within an hour of the slide. He said the area was particularly busy this weekend, given the nice weather and Mother’s Day. He said they’ve been ferrying a couple hundred people a day.
“There’s a ton of sort of boutique lodgings and vacation rentals on Lowell Point these days. Between that and the RV traffic and camper traffic for the holiday, which was pretty busy, it was pretty extensive. There was quite a bit going on," Miller said. "Resurrection Bay Seafoods has their cannery bunkhouse, that’s 36 people just there that have to go to work every day. And then there’s the residents of Lowell Point that work in town, and our staff that need to get back and forth.”
The water taxis are making several trips back and forth a day. It’s free for anyone living or working in Lowell Point and $25 for people wanting to get back and forth for recreational reasons.
Miller was born in Seward and raised with the family business on Lowell Point. He said he can’t remember ever seeing a slide this big.
“We’ve had floods and stuff that have knocked the road out. .. When I was a kid, we used to have to walk over avalanches to get to school all the time. That was really normal," he said. "But this landslide is the single largest. Nothing even kind of like this has happened before. Totally unprecedented.”
The city of Seward doesn’t have an estimate yet on how long it will take to open the road. The weather forecast for tonight into Wednesday is calling for winds up to 35 miles an hour, with rain forecast for Friday through Saturday. Miller doesn’t think that bodes well for cleanup efforts.
“That’s a lot of nasty chop. It will make what we’re doing a little bit harder, but it may make what they’re doing on the slide zone more challenging," he said. "They may choose to stop, kind of hit the pause button for a minute, I don’t know. Yeah, it’s a goofy situation. We’re just trying to roll with the punches and do the best we can.”
Miller said they’ll keep the water taxi running as long as needed.
“I’m super proud of our staff," he said. "They all just naturally stepped up to the plate, they were walking around checking on the campers and making sure people had food or just even had somebody to talk to if they were stressed out. A lot of people have been really stressed out about this — they’re not used to this kind of thing and feel claustrophobic. Everybody has just been really wonderful. But, yeah, I would hope to think that anybody else in our position would have done the same thing. We’re just really happy to be in a position to be helpful.”
The city of Seward is posting updates on the landslide on its Facebook Page. Anyone needing to schedule a water taxi can call Miller's Landing at 907-331-3113. Miller asks for reservations at least an hour in advance. He also asks anyone with reservations to stay at Miller’s Landing to get in touch as soon as possible.