KUAC - Fairbanks

Schools in Glennallen are closed again Tuesday and the public sewer system is shutdown as heavy snowmelt runoff into creeks continues to cause flooding in town.

Glennallen is roughly 190 miles northeast of Anchorage, and it’s among multiple Alaska communities hit by floodwaters from breakup on rivers and creeks. Ice jams have also caused major flooding in Interior and Southwest Alaska communities along the Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers, and flood watches remain in effect Tuesday for stretches of the regions.

Officials say the floodwaters have already torn some buildings off their foundations and inundated others. Photos also show high waters swamping streets and airstrips. No injuries have been reported.

In Glennallen, the local utility is setting up Porta-Potties around the community, and area residents are asked to limit water usage. The state transportation department said there was water over a portion of the Glenn Highway on Monday, but the road remained open.

A Bureau of Land Management field office was among local buildings flooded. BLM spokesperson Scott Claggett said the office is closed until further notice.

“BLM Glennallen field office is currently flooded, and electricity and sewage are currently down,” Claggett said. “It is a developing situation.”

The BLM hopes to resume some level of operations in Glennallen soon, but water damage and well contamination will need to be assessed.

“We do have portable generators and portable potties,” Claggett said. “We’re kind of looking at our options to make sure we have functional service as soon as possible.”

In the upper Yukon River village Circle, a roughly 400-mile drive to the north, recovery from weekend flooding continues.

Kyle Wright, the environmental health director for the Tanana Chiefs Conference, said the ice and water damage is in line with historic breakup floods that hit Eagle in 2009 and Galena in 2013. Wright said a lot of homes in Circle were impacted.

“There was at least one that was carried all the way away, and there were others – there are others – that were moved that are beyond repair,” Wright said.

Wright said the community has also seen extensive damage to key infrastructure and buildings.

“They have no electricity; the generators were flooded,” he said. “The clinic, which is fairly new, built in the last few years, the insulation got wet so that will have to be remediated. The water plant got about a foot and half of water inside of it. The store looked like it got water up to maybe 6 feet or 8 feet inside – it’s pretty well soaked. The offices and the tribal hall had a lot of water in it. I know the teacher housing got flooded and looked like the school did also.”

Heating oil and sewage releases are a concern and the community well will need to be disinfected, Wright said. He said the Tanana Chiefs Conference has sent out bottled water and the village has a full water storage tank.

“So they do have a tank full of safe drinking water,” he said. “It’s a little harder to access because there’s no electricity for the pumps.”

As a result, restoring power in Circle is a priority, he said.

“The Alaska Energy Authority has been working with the village on that and they’re planning to send up a couple of generators soon to power the community temporarily,” he said.

Wright said the local tribe did an excellent job evacuating elders and children out of the community. It’s not clear how many people are still in Circle, which had a listed population of 42 in the 2020 census.

Residents are able to come and go as the Steese Highway out of Circle has remained open, according to Wright, despite at least one section where water is over the gravel road.

Ice jam flooding continues to threaten communities downstream on the Yukon River. National Weather Service hydrologist Ed Plumb said Fort Yukon suffered some flooding late Sunday.

“We had reports of water over roads, and some structures and homes getting water in them,” Plumb said.

Plumb said villages farther downriver are now facing the same slug of water and ice, from what he called “about a 40-mile run of ice.”

A River Watch Team from the weather service plans to fly over Stevens Village, the Rampart Canyon, Tanana and Galena on Tuesday.

Meanwhile in Southwest Alaska, a flurry of late-season snowfall on Tuesday had grounded aerial monitoring of the lower Kuskokwim River, said Dave Strubel, a hydrologist with the weather service’s River Forecast Center in Anchorage.

The Lower Kuskokwim’s area of greatest concern, Strubel said, is the stretch from Kalskag to Bethel at the mouth of the river. Those areas can expect ice jam flooding in the next day or two, he said.

He said heavy winter snowfall has been a major factor in the severity of this year’s breakup and ice jams.

“That, associated with the cool spring, is causing a chain reaction, so to speak, of a lot of snow and all of a sudden, it all melting at once,” he said.

According to Strubel, ice jam concerns on the Kuskokwim should subside in several days, followed by the Yukon in seven to 10 days.

U.S. fighter jets intercepted six Russian aircraft flying off Alaska’s coasts last week.

The North American Aerospace Defense Command says its Alaska office detected the Russian aircraft as they were flying through the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone on Thursday.

A NORAD news release issued Saturday says the Russian formation included Tu-95 bombers, Su-35 fighters and an air-refueling tanker.

In response, Alaska NORAD dispatched F-16 and F-22 fighter jets and an AWACS plane for what the agency called a “routine interception.” But the news release didn’t say where the intercept occurred or how many U.S. aircraft were sent to accompany the Russian planes through the aircraft identification zone.

It’s not unusual for Russian aircraft to fly through the Alaska air-ID zone, which is international airspace. NORAD says the Russian aircraft didn’t enter U.S. or Canadian airspace, and weren’t considered a threat to either nation.

But some observers noted that the interception occurred while the military was conducting a large-scale training exercise called Northern Edge around Alaska — and while the U.S. and NATO are supporting Ukraine in its fight against Russia’s invasion.

Gov. Mike Dunleavy has issued a disaster declaration after flooding from ice jams and snowmelt hit several communities over the weekend.

National Weather Service hydrologist Ed Plumb said Eagle, Circle and Ft. Yukon all experienced high water. He said the water rose dramatically at Eagle on Friday night and crested Saturday morning.

“Water and ice went over the bank, up over downtown, water into the Falcon Inn right there on Front Street in Eagle,” he said. “And the road between Eagle and Eagle Village, which goes upriver, along the river, was completely covered with ice and water.”

Plumb said the water receded rapidly at Eagle Saturday, leaving behind blocks of ice.

“As of Sunday, the road between Eagle and Eagle Village was still impassable due to a mile and a half or so due to stranded giant ice chunks,” he said.

Plumb said the large volume of water ice released downstream of Eagle and carried on toward Circle — what he described as “80 to 90 miles of bank-to-bank ice running down the river.”

Plumb said the ice jammed below Circle, causing water to rise dramatically in the community Saturday night.

“Reports of about a 10-foot rise in 30 minutes in Circle Saturday evening,” he said. “Nearly all of the homes and structures in Circle were impacted and flooded, and preliminary estimates indicate this could be near record flooding.”

According to the Alaska State Troopers, all Circle residents are accounted for, and no one was injured.

The jam below Circle released Sunday, leaving behind areas of standing water, ice flows, and a lot of damaged homes and other structures. The surge of water and ice moved downstream past Ft. Yukon, where it jammed again, causing flooding that began Sunday night.

Plumb said the large surge of ice and water is expected to continue to cause problems as it pushes down the Yukon River and collides with stronger ice. The next communities in line were Beaver, Stevens Village and Rampart.

Alaska Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management information officer Jeremy Zidek said that so far, the governor’s disaster declaration covers Circle and Eagle on the Yukon, Crooked Creek on the Kuskokwim River and Glennallen, where there’s been heavy snowmelt runoff into Moose Creek.

Zidek said the state is reaching out to help flooded communities. A river watch team flew into Circle, where he credits residents with good community preparation and response.

“People were able to move back and get to higher ground. Some elders have been evacuated to Fairbanks and looking at efforts to move children to Fairbanks, so they can allow for clean-up operations,” he said. “There’s no immediate shelter needs in Circle at this time. They haven’t requested anything from us at the state. Most people are staying with friends or with family members in Fairbanks.”

Zidek said the state is helping with basic needs, including restoration of electricity.

“The state Emergency Operations Center has been working with the Tanana Chiefs Conference to get some generators out there, and we’ve also been talking to folks with the Alaska Energy Authority and others to see what we can do to restore the power,” he said.

Zidek said an emergency management specialist was sent to Glenallen, and a local incident management team had been activated.

Alaska Department of Transportation Northern Region spokesperson John Perreault said workers are on site to mitigate impacts along the Glenn Highway.

“There’s water up along the sides of the highway all along from mile 157 all the way into Glennallen. Right around that milepost 185 to 187 around Glennallen there are either pilot car pr flagging operations,” he said.

Perreault said as of Sunday, there was some water over the highway in Glennallen at about mile 185, but the road remained open.

The Alaska Division of Forestry and Fire Protection has sent resources to the Canadian province of Alberta, where agency information officer Lily Coyle says they’re dealing with an unusually intense early wildfire season. 

“They declared a state of emergency over this past weekend.,” Coyle said. “On Saturday they had over one hundred wildfires spreading out of control. Their premier deemed it an unprecedented crisis.”   

Coyle says the state sent a hot shot crew and an air tanker to Alberta.

While Alaska wildfire fighting agencies often send people and equipment to work outside the state in the fall, Coyle says the spring deployment is very unusual.

“This is the first time that we’ve sent a crew to Canada in May,” she said. “Our late fire season, coupled with the early drought conditions that Alberta is facing — that just set us up for this pretty unprecedented situation.”       

Coyle said Alberta fire fighters came to Alaska to help during our busy 2022 fire season. 

“And so this is an awesome opportunity for Alaskan fire fighters to pay back that service,” she said.

Coyle says Alaska has crews ready to respond to fires in state and is completing trainings that will provide additional people. On the federal side, Alaska Fire Service spokesperson Beth Ipsen says no personnel or equipment have so far been sent to help out in Alberta, but the AFS has 2 hot shot crews that will be finishing training this week and available for deployment.       

More than 10,000 U.S. service members have launched Northern Edge 2023, Alaska’s biggest military training exercise of the year. The Air Force says it’s Alaska’s premier training exercise.

“It’s a massive exercise,” said Air Force Maj. Clay Lancaster. “A lot of (additional) personnel are in the state of Alaska. A lot of aircraft have flown in for the exercise.”

Lancaster is chief public affairs officer for the 683th Air Base Wing at Joint Base Elmendorf Richardson, or JBER. He says this year’s Northern Edge includes more than 150 aircraft from the Air Force and Navy and the U.K. and Australia, both of which have sent personnel and warplanes to the biennial exercise.

A Pacific Air Forces news release says the allies will help trainers provide “an opportunity for joint, multinational and multi-domain operations designed to provide high-end, realistic war-fighter training, develop and improve joint interoperability and enhance the combat readiness of participating forces.”

Some Alaskans including environmentalists, commercial fishermen and coastal residents have criticized the exercise, parts of which involve live ammunition, as detrimental to salmon and whales migrating north during early summer. Rear Adm. Mark Sucato, commander of the Navy’s Northwest Region, recently visited the state to hear those concerns and discuss Navy research he says counters them.

Lancaster says having service members from allied nations and two branches of the U.S. military makes it an even better training opportunity.

“It’s very important to be able to train in a joint environment,” he added, “and that’s why we’re so grateful for the state of Alaska with the incredible training spaces here.”

That includes the 65,000 square miles of airspace above the Joint Pacific Alaska Range Complex, a network of training areas scattered around the state and 42,000 square nautical miles offshore, along with and additional temporary maritime activities areas.

Lancaster said in an interview Monday that the Navy “established these maritime training areas there in the Gulf of Alaska, and it gives them a significant capability to train.” He said the Navy is bringing four warships to this year’s exercise: the stealthy destroyer USS Zumwalt and the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Momsen, the guided-missile cruiser USS Lake Champlain and the dock landing ship USS Harpers Ferry.

The Momsen docked at Homer last week for a two-day visit.

Lancaster said Alaskans can expect to see a lot of military activity in those parts of the gulf during the exercise, and aircraft activity around Alaska’s two Air Force bases — Eielson, near Fairbanks, and JBER, near Anchorage.

“They kind of take off and land on the bases, and they go up to the JPARC and they do their business,” he said. “And then they come back and they land at Eielson, they land at JBER.”

Some of the aircraft will be also operating out of both Fairbanks and Anchorage international airports.

Lancaster said most of the activity will take place during weekday mornings and afternoons. He says the Air Force and Navy also have been trying to inform hunters, commercial fishermen and others in remote areas about increased aircraft and naval activity during the exercise.

The Nenana Ice Classic tripod moved enough to stop the clock Monday in the annual Tanana River ice-out guessing game.

According to an Ice Classic organization post, this year’s game officially ended at 4:01 p.m. Alaska Standard Time Monday — a week later than the ice went out last year.

The tripod fell on its side Sunday, but it took another day for the decaying ice and current to push it downstream enough to stop the shore-based clock it’s tethered to.

People who guessed the correct time on their tickets will split a jackpot of over $222,000.

Ice Classic organizers said Monday that winners would be notified within 24 hours, with checks to be mailed out June 1.