Flood recovery

August 27, 2006

By Michael Rovito

Frontiersman

Armed with a bevy of snacks and beverages, half a dozen Red Cross workers stood on the side of Petersville Road in Trapper Creek Saturday, waiting for victims of last week's flood to come to them for disaster relief.

The Red Cross van was parked about six miles from the Parks Highway, where neighbors had gathered at the property of Tim Walker, whose cabin was shown on the front page of the Frontiersman Tuesday breaking up under a bridge at Moose Creek.

As Walker and his neighbors continued to pick through his litter-strewn yard, Mike McCoomb, who lives just down the street, stood on the bridge that destroyed Walker's home, describing the amazing volume of water that came through his neighborhood. He said local families are tight-knit, however, and neighbors have been turning out in droves to lend a hand any way they can.

The Red Cross will continue its operations as long as the group is needed.

Volunteers from Alaska and Outside have converged on the state, doing damage assessments and making every effort to get the word out to locals that they are here.

&#8220We've got our teams out every day,” Red Cross spokeswoman Katherine Boury said.

The aid organization performs damage assessments to determine the amount of financial assistance victims need.

A card from the Red Cross, which works the same way a debit card would, is then given to flood victims so they can buy supplies to get back on their feet.

This disaster has struck aid workers, many of them citing the widespread area of damage to places already far off the grid.

Returning from a damage assessment on Oil Well Road that was thwarted by road conditions too rough for the compact sedan he was riding in, Dick, a Red Cross damage assessor who declined to give his last name, said the damage he has seen from the floods is some of the worst he's ever witnessed.

Houston has received the most disaster assistance, Boury said, pointing out that, because of flood damage and the remote locations of many areas hit by the flood, it is taking the Red Cross longer to get to some places.

As clean-up efforts continued over the weekend, the Mat-Su Borough issued a reminder Friday of the risk of contracting tetanus from cuts received when working with debris left by the receding floodwaters.

Tetanus shots are available and priced based on individual income at the Mat-Su Public Health Center in Wasilla, according to a borough news release.

Motorists driving borough roads may encounter more than one construction crew as maintenance teams work day and night to repair area streets.

As of 1 p.m. Saturday, the borough was reporting the Parks Highway down to one lane at Mile 132.7 over the Chulitna River.

Five miles north of the Chulitna, the highway near Troublesome Creek has completely reopened, according to the borough.

Visits to flood-affected areas in the Mat-Su show the clean-up and rebuilding effort in full swing, while many weary residents keep an eye to the sky watching for more rain.

A forecast from the National Weather Service updated at 4 p.m. Saturday predicted a mostly cloudy week, with some chances of showers in the mountains on Monday.

Officials from the River Forecast Center in Anchorage said at the end of last week that they do not expect the rivers and creeks to rise to previous flood-stage levels.

Contact Michael Rovito at 352-2252 or michael.rovito@frontiersman.com