Content
Skip to Main ContentAccessibility Help
North

Alaska landslide: Searchers recover 3rd body in Sitka

Searchers on Tuesday found the body of a city building official who went missing in a landslide.

Sitka mayor says the city will 'never been the same' after landslides

The Associated Press ·
Sitka City Administrator Mark Gorman stands in front of a house on Kramer Avenue as contractors and other search members look in the area where city building inspector William Stortz was last seen before a landslide. The body of Stortz was recovered on Tuesday. (James Poulson/Daily Sitka Sentinel via Associated Press)

Searchers on Tuesday found the body of a city building official who went missing in an landslide in Sitka, Alaska last week.

The body of 62-year-old William Stortz, a building official for Sitka, was found at 4:15 p.m. Alaska Time Tuesday on the south side of the landslide, the city announced in a news release.

Stortz was working near newly built homes on Aug. 18 when logs, mud and debris slid down a hillside into the neighbourhood.

The slide came after 2.5 inches of rain fell in 24 hours.

Brothers Elmer and Ulises Diaz were painting a new house and were killed. The bodies of Elmer, 26, and Ulises Diaz, 25, were found in the debris of logs and muck last week.

In a statement Tuesday, Sitka Mayor Mim McConnell praised Stortz and the Diaz brothers.

"William was hard working, intelligent, and a very kind man. Our family knew him and he was well respected throughout Sitka,"McConnell said.

"William and the Diaz brothers will be missed. One day the landslides will be cleaned up, but Sitka will never be the same."

CBC's Journalistic Standards and Practices|About CBC News
Corrections and clarifications|Submit a news tip|

Related Stories