The Landslide · 12:26am Dec 15th, 2023
Posted via Mobile. Legal stuff at bottom.
The first message arrived an hour before midnight.
I was still awake, finishing up some gaming and thinking about getting to bed, when a friend of my family sent me a text. It said that they’d heard that there had been a landslide “out the road,” by my parent’s place, and asking if they were okay.
At first I wasn’t too worried. My parent’s place was built sturdy, and in a spot that was supposed to be fairly insulated from many of rural Alaska’s hazards. But I called home anyway.
Busy signal. So I tried my dad’s cell.
Straight to voicemail.
Again, this wasn’t worrying. Not yet. Cell coverage in Alaska is spotty at best, as many of you readers know, and it wasn’t uncommon for him to have no signal unless he was in a specific spot on my parent’s property. So I tried the house again.
Another busy signal. I hoped that it meant that one of them was on the phone, talking to someone else about the slide, but at the same time, I knew from experience growing up there that the phone could just as well be out, which often resulted in the same response when called.
But by now I was seeing posts on Facebook. There had been a big slide, people were saying. People were asking if everyone was okay.
I was now getting worried. Facebook said my parents were online, but neither of them were responding to messages. I called a friend’s parents who lived nearby, asking if they could take a look, only to be told that they would in the morning, but the current storm was so bad they didn’t dare leave the house.
At this point, I was beginning to worry, a deep fear gnawing at my insides and sucking everything into a hole. I thanked them and returned to scouring what sources of information I could. By now several of my siblings were also aware of what was going on, and we were all reaching out to anyone we could think of, looking for information.
Things only got worse.
Godspeed to your father, and good luck with all that comes next.
I'm so sorry you guys has been going through this. I've been praying for their safety, and for you all to have the peace that passes understanding.
Very sad to hear official confirmation about your dad. My prayers are with you, your family and everyone else affected by this disaster as you move on to whatever’s next.