Rains wash out many borough communities

WASILLA — With rains pummeling the Matanuska and Susitna Valleys for days, flooding that had spent days menacing various communities struck Wednesday with a vengeance.

“Until yesterday at about 4 (p.m.), it was a very slow-moving incident,” Mat-Su Borough Deputy Director of Emergency Services Clint Vardeman said Thursday at the borough’s Emergency Operations Center.

By Thursday afternoon, the rain hadn’t let up and had caused problems in every fire service area in the Mat-Su Borough, but had only caused property damage.

“People are paying attention and they’re leaving when they need to,” Vardeman said. “Luckily at this point we’re not seeing any danger to lives.”

• In Talkeetna, local firefighters with aid from an Anchorage water rescue team evacuated a subdivision on the east side of town after the Talkeetna River overran its banks.

• On the south side of Talkeetna, Montana Creek smashed through a dike protecting Yoder Road. Wednesday afternoon, the borough had tried to repair the damage with large rocks — called riprap — sent up in multiple truckloads. But it wasn’t enough and water went around the dike, washing over the road.

• Farther north in the Petersville/Trapper Creek area, Oil Well Road was washed out in multiple spots, including one that left a 10-foot gap in the road where a culvert failed. Petersville Road was also unpassable for a spell, but had re-opened.

• In Willow, numerous roads were closed off of Willow-Fishhook Road. The borough evacuated numerous homes along Willow Creek.

Nick Harringon, who lives on the now-closed Burrows Road, said Thursday morning he left home at 9 p.m., Wednesday and hadn’t been back. Near the Parks Highway’s Willow Creek Bridge, Mary Weis said she was living in her house on the creek the last time it flooded in 2006. Her house fared pretty well then, with water confined to the basement.

“Last time it flooded almost all the way to the top of the stairs and it stopped right there,” she said.

Patricia Goodwin lives off of Friday Road on Willow Creek and said she spent Wednesday night at her daughter’s house.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do from here,” she said. “This is worse than 2006. … This came a lot faster. The water is running a lot harder.”

• In Houston, the Little Susitna River overran its banks, flooding the home of Len Anderson. He said he was staying put, but had moved everything out of the bottom floor. He joked he was used to this sort of thing, having grown up along the Mississippi River.

• In Wasilla, a flash flood swamped a cul-de-sac. All five homes on Marilyn Circle were flooded, prompting an early morning rescue using inflatable boats. The borough said 14 people were displaced, nine of those rescued by boats. The rest were able to get out on their own.

• Off Wasilla-Fishhook, Welch Road and Shorty Street were closed due to flooding.

• Palmer responders made sure to clear out culverts there, said the city’s Emergency Services director, Jon Owen. Bill Gamble, chief of the West Lakes fire department, who was helping run the borough EOC, said that as of Thursday afternoon the Matanuska Rivers was rising.

Thursday evening, Palmer responders were called to a scene off Palmer-Fishhook where a culvert had backed up and flooded a road at Crab Circle and Nangle Street.

• Butte also has a wary eye on the Matanuska River, but also on the Knik River, which is similarly rising. Gamble said that with the ground extremely saturated, trees in the area were reportedly coming out of the ground, roots and all. Responders there were also worried about mudslides.

• Out past Sutton at Mile 71, Glenn Highway, a rockslide briefly closed the highway. There were rockslide warnings between Miles 74 and 75.

The National Weather Service in Anchorage reports that for Wednesday and through 4:30 p.m., Thursday, it had recorded 1.79 inches of rain in the Valley.

The last time the borough saw flooding like this was in 2006. Vardeman said the flooding then came on quicker, but in terms of geography, this flooding is happening in most of the same areas in the Valley.

Anecdotally, at least, Gamble said he’s heard this has been worse.

“We’ve had several people who have lived here a long time call to say that this is worse than the flooding we had in 2006, that this is actually more like the flooding we had in 1995,” Gamble said.

Emergency shelters are open for anyone who needs them at the Curtis D. Menard Memorial Sports Center in Wasilla, the Willow Community Center and the Upper Susitna Senior Center near Talkeetna.

At the Menard, volunteers said they’d had one person use the shelter, but he left early Thursday morning. Willow was similarly deserted.

Contact reporter Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.

• Numerous roads in the Mat-Su Borough have been closed due to flooding. For updated emergency information, visit the borough online at matsugov.us.

• Updated information about area rivers and flood conditions can be found at the National Weather Services website at http://water.weather.gov/ahps2/index.php?wfo=pafc. Color-coded tags show areas that have no flooding, are near flood stage or are experiencing anywhere from minor to major flooding.