Willow Flood Disaster extended

PALMER — The Mat-Su Borough Assembly has extended the disaster declaration for the Willow Creek Flood of Deneki Bridge until Jan. 7. The motion made by Assembly member Dan Mayfield passed without opposition at an emergency meeting held on Saturday where Assembly members heard from Department of Emergency Services Director Ken Barkley, Jim Jenson with Borough Operations and Maintenance and Dave Lundin with HDL. On Monday, Borough Mayor Vern Halter and Manager John Moosey declared a disaster and request the Governor’s assistance with resources or the Air National Guard. According to Todd Smoldon, Dunleavy’s Director of the Mat-Su Office, the Governor has not been given a recommendation with what to do with the disaster declaration, and has not yet acted. Halter attempted to reach Dunleavy on Friday, but he was unavailable. Following the discussion of plans from Jenson and Lundin, it was apparent to Assembly members that several permits will have to be approved hastily on Monday to move forward with excavation of the ice jam above the Deneki Bridge.

“Each day conditions worsened,” said DES Director Barkley.

Barkley is still unaware of exactly how many people are stranded past the jammed bridge. Water flooded into the streets to find low ground and trapped cars. Barkley said that the only day that borough boots were not on the ground was on Wednesday, and that someone had attempted to cut the cars out of the ice with a chainsaw, resulting in a flow of water through private property. Borough Water Rescue performed rescues in banana boats on Monday, according to Barkley. As the water got deeper and changed channels, cars became stuck in the roadway, creating their own ice jam.

“We were cut off at that point and we got really nervous,” said Barkley.

Barkley’s plan was to go out on Wednesday to determine how many people were still out past the bridge, but that plan was thwarted when the jam persisted and the Denecki Bridge was completely out. Since then, crews have found a viable trail to take snowmachines out to.

“We did something to my knowledge that we’ve never done in the borough,” said Barkley.

Barkley illustrated to the Assembly how the Borough crews taxied residents across the river to pick up food and supplies. Many homeowners who do not wish to leave are staying to protect their animals. Denecki Bridge is still scheduled to undergo construction this summer. As Assembly members began to talk about the long-term fix for the issue, Jenson and Lundin both worried about April breakup. The possible plans are to set an excavator on the four to five foot thick ice within the banks of the river and dig a ditch moving east to evacuate the water, set down a rail car, or to stack the large chunks of ice on top of one another. None of the plans proposed by Jenson and Lundin include explosives. The 87,000-pound excavator proposed by Jenson sitting in the river to dig a ditch allowing the water to move east seemed to be the most popular plan, but still requires permitting to be issued on Monday. Mayor Halter continued to wonder aloud during the meeting about the Shirley Town Bridge, an old logging route that had not been repaired or reconstructed. Halter stressed the necessity for multiple ingress and egress points, as the Borough discovered over the summer with the McKinley fire. Assemblywoman Tam Boeve had been matching Barkley’s readiness to act.

“I couldn’t be more proud of where I live,” said Boeve.