Soldotna High School student creates warning signs to save lives on Cook Inlet mudflats

Published 10:31 am Friday, August 14, 2026

An innovative project led by a Soldotna High School senior is aiming to prevent further unnecessary loss of life in the Northern Cook Inlet mudflats along the Turnagain Arm coastland.

Warning signs highlighting the dangers of entering the area were installed on Aug. 13 in key locations on the Kenai Peninsula Borough and Alaska Railroad Properties due to efforts by local student Luci Micciche. She started the project as part of the annual Caring for the Kenai Program, in which she won second place.

The mudflats along the Cook Inlet are extremely dangerous and unstable, due to highly saturated glacial silt, which acts as interlocking quicksand, and have been the scene to some heartbreaking tragedies.

”People can and do get trapped on the mudflats, and if emergency personal is unable to get to them on time, will sink into the mud and either drown or perish from hypothermia in the quickly rising Cook Inlet tide,” nonprofit organization Caring for the Kenai stated.

”The many gut-wrenching stories of people who have perished on the mudflats have been the motivating factor for Luci Micciche to avert future completely preventable tragedies.”

When asked about problems that need solving, Micciche thought back to a time when she was a child and with some friends in Hope. As they started to venture out onto the flats, her father immediately called them back, warning them that it was very dangerous.

Micciche recalled how her father told them stories of unsuspecting people who had died on the mudflats.

“The stories were genuinely terrifying and made a deep impression on me,” she said. “When 20-year-old Zachary Porter drowned on the flats in 2023, I felt like it was time to act.”

Micciche believed that these emergency situations were a problem that was entirely preventable. She said that people needed to be informed, so she designed unique warning signs to be placed at various access points of the mudflats.

The clearly illustrated designs aim to garner attention so that people can understand its cautionary message, regardless of what language they speak — an accommodation for the wide variety of tourists from around the world that visit Alaska every year.

“A sign that just says do not enter doesn’t give enough information — these signs that I designed show the consequence of not heeding the warning,” she said. “They make it painfully obvious that you are putting yourself in real danger if you step out onto the mudflats.”

Micciche didn’t just stop at signs. Her project encompassed a much broader public service campaign designed to save lives and keep people out of dangerous situations.

For almost a year, she has been broadcasting radio messages over six local radio stations, and there are now plans to teach and train students of the Kenai Peninsula School District about the dangers of walking out into the mudflats with material that is age-appropriate for different grade levels.

In a partnership with the Alaska Railroad Corporation, the signs have been purchased and will be installed at different points of entry to the mudflats, on the Seward Highway and along the Hope Highway. The first signs were installed at the Bird Creek bridge at mile 101.5 of the Seward Highway.

“On the Kenai Peninsula, the most accessible mud flats that pose a danger to locals and tourist is approximately 30 miles of North Cook Inlet and Turnagain Arm coastland,” Caring for the Kenai added.

Micciche will continue to work with other organizations until there are adequate warning signs along the coast areas where people are most likely to enter the mudflats, and also plans to work with local hotels to relay the critical warning information to visitors and tourists.

She added that when she first considered doing the project, it seemed almost too simple, but that is what drew her in to make it a reality.

“This is an obvious problem with a doable solution, and people need to know that mud kills,” Micciche said. “I’m advocating these new warning signs because I genuinely believe it will save lives and ensure that lost individuals in the past will be honored and remembered by saving others today and in the future.”