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Jennifer Canfield photos
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Rezanof Drive between piers 2 and three
has reopened. The road is clear and traffic is moving through without delay.
The
quarter-mile stretch of road was closed before 10 a.m today due to
rockslides that became more severe in the afternoon. DOT employees on the scene
say they'd been intermittently monitoring the situation for the past few days.
At times traffic was backed up to Dead Man's Curve with long delays for those
traveling to and from the Coast Guard Base, Bell's Flats, or the airport.
KMXT's
Jay Barrett was on the scene when one of the larger rockslides occurred.
"The dust that
it's stirred up right now. Huge boulders but a lot of loose gravel as well. I
didn't see anything make the water but there are huge rocks coming down.
Traffic if backed up on the out of town side, the west side, including at least
on school bus."
Police Chief T.C.
Kamai says the city has a plan for emergency service when something like this
happens.
"We
did allow one emergency vehicle to get through this morning while we had the
road closed to the general public. Normally arrangements are made at the fire
department level if they need an ambulance or things like that. The fire
departments on that side are able to provide services until the city ambulance
can get there. Fortunately there was no need for an ambulance on that side of
town."
This
morning 13 members of Kodiak
High School's baseball
team were on their way to the airport for an 11:10 flight when they learned of
the closure. The team was on its way to the conference tournament in Kenai.
Coach Rick Langfitt says they waited for two hours before learning that Era
wasn't able to hold their flight any longer and had departed. The team is scheduled to leave on a flight late tonight. Langfitt said the inconvenience was just
part of life in Kodiak.
Five
Department of Transportation employees monitored the area until about 5 p.m. Caution is advised to those traveling through the area.
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