A woman who was filming a TikTok video about wilderness survival managed to save herself from an active rockslide and the life of a truck driver who was unknowingly driving right towards it.
Alana Davis, who goes by Dirty Explorer on TikTok, is an Alaskan guide in Juneau and was on a beach along Douglas Highway filming a clip for her 170,000 followers on the video-sharing platform.
When she heard a distant rumbling in the background, she immediately picked up her equipment and ran for her life with the camera still on.
The sound of the rumbling became louder, prompting Davis to run faster from the landslide's path. She frantically yelled at highway traffic to, "Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop your car!” while waving her arms.
At one point in the clip, she wondered in the text overlay if the landslide was either stopping or slowing down.
Based on the clip's audio, the increasing volume of the rumbling indicated the rockslide was just beginning.
@thedirtyexplorer/TikTok
@thedirtyexplorer/TikTok
Davis said she saw a man in a pickup truck headed towards a blind turn while traveling at 50 m.p.h.
She managed to stop him.
@thedirtyexplorer/TikTok
“Literally 30 seconds from getting killed. Think about that,” the driver told Davis after seeing the rocky destruction ahead that would have crushed him and his truck.
Davis replied:
“I ran screaming down the road, just so you know, on the beach flailing my arms."
People were impressed with her quick thinking.
@thedirtyexplorer/TikTok
@thedirtyexplorer/TikTok
@thedirtyexplorer/TikTok
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@thedirtyexplorer/TikTok
Others gave voice to Mother Nature.
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@thedirtyexplorer/TikTok
@thedirtyexplorer/TikTok
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, rockslides and debris flow warning signs include trees cracking and a rumbling sound–like the one Davis heard in the video–that gets louder and is more noticeable as the landslide nears.
The New York Post reported that the "Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities spokesman Sam Dapcevich said about 500 cubic yards of material fell to the road from a cliff about 500 feet up the hillside near mile 11 of North Douglas Highway on April 6."
Davis posted a follow-up video showing construction crews clearing up the debris.
A second rockslide occurred in the same location on April 10, with twice the quantity of debris–including car-sized boulders that bounced across the road and over guard railings and landed on the beach.
In the comments of her follow-up post, Davis had a special message for climate-change deniers.
"Enjoy the footage but if you don’t believe in climate change my page isn’t for you," she wrote, adding, "Make the adult decision & leave if You don’t want that convo."
In 2021, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency confirmed that climate change can influence the intensity and frequency of rainfall–which is a catalyst of rockslides–based on a study of the link between precipitation and landslides in the High Mountain Asia region of China, Tibet and Nepal.
@thedirtyexplorer/TikTok
As of Wednesday, both lanes at the site of the rockslide in Juneau are clear; however, the road will remain closed while geologists monitor the site, according to the New York Post.
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