A collaborative research team is seeking funding to develop a landslide warning and response system for Sitka.The RAND Corporation is preparing to submit a proposal to the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) “Smart and Connected Communities Program” for a full-scale, multi-year research project. The research team is in Sitka this week holding conversations with local government and citizens.
Two community meetings are open to the public at the Sitka Sound Science Center in the Karsh Classroom on Wednesday, January 10 from 6:00-7:00 p.m. and Friday, January 12 from 8:00-9:00 a.m.
Katie Whipkey, Policy Analyst with the RAND Corporation, was previously an AmeriCorps volunteer at Mt. Edgecumbe High School. “Hearing about the landslides that were deadly a couple years back struck a chord, knowing how that’s affecting people all over town. It’s just stuck with me,” Whipkey said. She was joined in the KCAW studio by RAND Senior Researcher Ryan Brown and Tory O’Connell, the Research Director of the Sitka Sound Science Center.
