Three people missing after a huge landslide in southeast part of the U.S. State of Alaska are presumed dead, a local fire department spokesman said on Tuesday.

The missing people are presumed dead and the search will become a "body recovery effort," judging by "the force of the side and that kind of impact," Sara Peterson said.

The huge landslide happened on Tuesday morning after a 24-hour rainfall at the Alaskan town of Sitka, burying the three people -- a city building official, 62, and two brothers, 26 and 25.

Searchers now have given up hope of finding them alive as crews were not able to work at the site for unstable terrain. The search did not start late Tuesday afternoon.

A witness described the landslide as a sea of logs, mud and debris and a flurry of muddy debris, saying the entire process lasted about four minutes.

A state of emergency has been declared in the town and borough of Sitka, where about 9,000 people live. Sitka saw heavy rains throughout the year, and more are expected.

In September, a major landslide linked with heavy rains near the town wiped out hundreds of thousands of U.S. dollars in watershed-restoration projects. A footbridge and trails, including one that had been repaired after flooding last year, were damaged in the rains.