A landslide took out the Ketchikan Public Utilities Ward Cove electrical substation at about 4 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 15, causing an estimated $1.59 million in damages.

Ketchikan Gateway Borough and City of Ketchikan mayors jointly signed a declaration of disaster to address repairs.

The electrical load for residents who rely on the substation has been temporarily redirected to two other substations, according to the City of Ketchikan Public Information Officer Kim Simpson.

When rain and wind triggered the trees, rocks and mud near the substation to give way, the landslide moved the control house for the substation eight feet off of its foundation, according to Simpson. Damage was caused to electrical cables, the cable vault, ground grid, concrete retaining walls and security fence.

Simpson said the 12 kilovolt feeder breaker, battery bank, station light and power transformer will all need to be replaced. Equipment inside the control house wasn’t damaged, but the other damage has still left the substation unusable.

Nobody was injured by the slide, according to Ketchikan Fire Department Fire Chief Rick Hines.

A joint press release from the borough and city early Friday evening described the damage to the substation as “catastrophic,” and called for state and federal assistance in completing restorations, the cost of which the release said “go above available resources for KPU and City of Ketchikan.”

Over the course of 24 hours between about 4 a.m. Thursday and 4 a.m. Friday, more than six inches of rain fell at the Ketchikan International Airport, according to data collected by the National Weather Service. 

Between about noon on Thursday and 7 a.m. on Friday, the National Weather Service had Ketchikan and Metlakatla under a high wind warning. Gusts reached as high as 58 miles per hour, according to data collected from the Ketchikan International Airport.

There is currently no exact schedule for the repairs’ completion, but Simpson said it might be a “series of months” before the substation is back up and running.