Avalanche in Alaska, April 15, 1999

Name: Avalanche in Alaska, April 15, 1999
Start: 1999-04-15T12:00
End: 1999-04-15T12:00
Location: Alaska

April 15, 1999 · NWS AFC · 1 event in 1 county or zone

1 avalanche, as filed by the National Weather Service.

The toll

Deaths: 1
Injuries: 0
Property damage: $2,000
Crop damage: None recorded
Events: 1

Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.

Event by event

1 avalanche. Local standard time, as filed.

Avalanche, Central Gulf Coast

When: April 15, 12:00 PM AST
Where: Central Gulf Coast forecast zone
Deaths: 1 direct, 0 indirect
Property damage: $2,000
Reported by: NEWSPAPER

A backhoe and its operator, working on a construction project for the new Cordova Electric Cooperative hydroelectric plant, were caught up in an avalanche about noon on Thursday. Snow broke loose from a steep canyon wall west of Ohmar Falls, tumbled down a 2,000 foot slope, toppling the backhoe and burying it in snow. The location of the avalanche was about 7 miles northeast of Cordova near Ohmar Falls.The cab was quickly dug out, but the body of the backhoe operator, Gary Stone, 46, was not found until Saturday. The body was found pinned between the backhoe and logs that had been used as a temporary bridge at the hydroelectric project construction site.Heavy rains had fallen on the snow during the prior 24 hours on Wednesday.

The people who died

As the offices recorded each death: direct deaths were caused by the weather itself, indirect ones by something it set in motion.

Event	Date	Age	Sex	Where	Kind
Avalanche, Central Gulf Coast	1999-04-15	46	Male	Outside/Open Areas	Direct

What these are

Avalanche: A mass of snow sliding down a mountainside that caused a death, an injury or damage.

After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.

The same day elsewhere

Every storm in Alaska in 1999 Every state in 1999 This day in weather history Warnings in Alaska, April 1999

Sources

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5689785.