Anchorage lifts evacuation order for avalanche area

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — An evacuation order for people living in about 100 homes near an Anchorage suburb over fears of a second avalanche have been lifted.

The municipality of Anchorage late Sunday said mitigation efforts to bring down the remaining snowpack on a mountain near Eagle River were successful, and the task of removing snow from a major roadway was to begin Monday.

Snow removal could take up to two weeks, officials said in a notice posted on the municipality’s website.

The evacuation order went into effect earlier Sunday.

About half a mountain’s snowpack came down in an avalanche late Thursday. The Anchorage Office of Emergency Management said the slide is up to 450 feet (137 meters) wide and up to 80 feet (24 meters) deep. Officials said it appears no one was trapped in the slide and no homes were destroyed.

The mountain’s remaining snow also was in danger of coming down, officials said Sunday when issuing the evacuation order.

Mitigation efforts to bring down the remaining snowpack included explosives placed by helicopters.