Flooding forces family to evacuate

BUTTE — A family living along the Matanuska River was evacuated and another property threatened Monday as the swollen river cut a new path through the area.

Chris Wenner and his wife Daina Mirsch-Wenner watched Sunday night as the surging river ate away at their property at 1150 N. Old Glenn Hwy.

“We’ve lost 10 to 15 feet just overnight,” Mirsch-Wenner said. “They were out there last night and trees were falling along the shore.”

The couple has owned the property since 2009. Mirsch-Wenner said the first year they lived there they lost about 10 feet of bank to river erosion, but nothing else since then.

By 7 a.m., Monday, the river had jumped its bank and a new channel began flowing through the woods and into the couple’s driveway, Chris Wenner said. Within a couple hours, the driveway was flooded.

Emergency crews from the Mat-Su Borough and surrounding fire departments responded, said Clint Vardeman, the borough’s deputy director of Emergency Services. Volunteers turned out to fill and place sandbags to help save the Wenners property, but as waters continued to rise, the Wenners were evacuated.

“It’s chewing away the bank and it’s creating a channel and moving in,” Vardeman said of the river. “And it’s not going to slow down. We’ve given them an offer to help to try and move valuables out of their hose and they have accepted. We’re going to do what we can to try and protect this, but it’s still creeping up. It’s all we can do.”

Ben Ritch-Smith, who also lives on the property in a small house nearest the river, was already moving his belongings out as volunteers from Butte Fire Department were stacking sandbags along the edge of the driveway.

“It is just so fast,” Ritch-Smith said. “Once it undercuts the bank, it just comes in.”

Vardeman said steady rains over the weekend have raised water levels and increased flooding concerns along the Matanuska River near Palmer.

By 12:30 p.m., Monday, emergency responders had delivered 150 sandbags and had another 150 on the way in hopes of keeping water from reaching the home.

Along with the Wenners’ property, Vardeman said there was also concern for the property owners to the east, where the river has risen up to a ditch at its driveway. The borough was still trying to contact those property owners Monday evening.

“We’re looking to protect that driveway as well, because the land slants down from there, so it (water) gets up and over that driveway, it’s going to run down,” he said.

Chris Wenner said he’s kept an eye on the river levels since moving to the property, but was surprised at how quickly the river rose and changed its course. Along with placing sandbags, they also cut down trees near the riverbank to try and redirect the current of the water.

“I got to try something,” he said while returning from the woods.

Where the family goes from here is unknown, Mirsch-Wenner said.

“I just don’t know what the next step is,” she said. “I just don’t know what to do. I don’t know if we should rent a storage unit and get all of our crap out and let the river take it, or if this is going to go away.”

Robert DeBerry, Andrew Wellner and Tim Rockey contributed to this story.