Borough responds to second flood possibility in Butte

BUTTE — The Mat-Su Borough is currently monitoring a flood possibility along the Matanuska River.

According to a press release from the the borough’s public information office, water started flowing over the top of river ice and entered flood channels in low lying areas north of Maud Road along the Old Glenn Highway. Borough staff are monitoring the river intermittently and will provide updates as conditions change.

This comes less than one month after flooding broke out and damaged homes, cars and property in Willow before Christmas. While borough crews have completed clearing ice off Deneki Road which had been under the redirected Willow Creek water, across the Valley the Matanuska River has suffered a different flooding possibility due to ice.

In Willow, the Deneki Bridge created an ice jam preventing Willow Creek from flowing under the bridge. Residents in Butte are no stranger to living in an active floodplane either. Flooding destroyed property along the Matanuska River during fall floods in 2012. Where only a bike path separates the road from the river currently, a house and adjacent trailer sat on the property in 2012 before they were swept away into the Matanuska River.