Interior

Ice jams caused major flooding in Buckland on Thursday, according to the National Weather Service.

The weather service said the Buckland River had flooded 80% of the Northwest Arctic Borough community, and residents were using boats to get around.

As of the 2020 census, 535 people lived in Buckland. An aerial photo shows the swollen river flowing across a bend and through the community.

A large ice jam on the Yukon

Meanwhile, a major ice jam was holding in place on a remote section of the middle Yukon River, upstream of the village of Ruby. National Weather Service hydrologist Ed Plumb flew over the ice jam on Thursday.

“We saw about 50 miles of packed-in ice behind the ice jam that wasn’t moving, and there was extensive overland flooding for several miles along the Yukon River — for several miles away from the bank,” he said.

Plumb says isolated cabins and fish camps were surrounded by flood water in the area where the Nowitna River flows into the Yukon.

“It’s creating a giant lake where it’s backing up the Yukon River water,” he said.

Plumb says water was rising at Tanana, about 40 miles upstream of the end of the jam, but it wasn’t clear if that was due to the jam or due to a broader slug of breakup water and ice flushing down the river.

In a flood advisory that’s in effect until 12:15 p.m. Saturday, the National Weather Service warned that people who live in the area should “stay alert and be prepared to take action.”

Floodwaters recede at Glenallen

In the Glenallen area, floodwaters caused by snow melt have significantly receded. Incident commander Jason Severs redits actions by the Alaska Department of Transportation.

“DOT has brought in a contractor with a couple of pumps. They are pumping the water out of Glennallen, downtown Glennallen,” he said. “They’re also installing two additional culverts to Moose Creek.”

Moose Creek and its tributaries are the source of the flooding, which started on May 12 when a rapid warm-up began melting a heavy snowpack. Severs says that at the flood’s peak, water was 6 to 8 feet deep in places.

“It has flooded the basement of the LIO office, the community library. Its flooded fire station completely out,” he said. “BLM has buildings that are underwater. I believe there are 6 homes that have damage. Several businesses and non-profits also have water damage.”

Severs says a community wastewater system damaged by the flood is back online but at reduced capacity. He says flood waters have largely drained from most of Glennallen proper, but the west end of town was still underwater on Thursday. 

Meanwhile, Severs says the community is getting help.

“There are some private contractors that have already come out to look at som of the private residences. The state has come out and they are doing some initial assessments. The American Red Cross is here. They’re offering water, food, cleaning supplies,” he said.

Severs says Glennallen is in line for state and federal assistance.  He anticipates the recovery process could take months.

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 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.

A search is underway for two climbers in Denali National Park and Preserve whose tracks, rangers say, led into the path of an avalanche.

According to a park service news release, Eli Michel, 34, of Columbia City, Indiana, and Nafiun Awal, 32, of Seattle, were last heard from early Friday. They told a friend through a satellite communication device that they planned to climb the west ridge of Moose’s Tooth. The 10,335-foot peak is about 50 miles north of Talkeetna.

The two men never checked in again.

National park rangers based in Talkeetna searched the area on Sunday. They found the pair’s unattended tent, ski tracks that led to the base of the route where they switched to boots and crampons, and finally boot tracks leading into a recent avalanche. No other tracks were observed Sunday.

The park service says further ground search is limited due to crevasses and risk of rockfalls and avalanches. A search by helicopter was ongoing Monday.

This is a developing story, check back for updates.

Investigators are working the site where two 11th Airborne Division Apache helicopters collided and crashed in the Interior on April 27, killing three soldiers and injuring a fourth.

Eleventh Airborne Division media relations chief John Pennell says an investigation team from the Army’s Combat Readiness Center out of Ft. Novosel, Alabama began work at the crash site, which is about 50 miles east of Healy, on Monday.

Pennell says onboard flight recorders have been recovered from the wreckage.

“Each helicopter had a black box, that much like with commercial airliners, it records a loop of continuous information during the flight,” he said. “They were able to recover the black boxes from both helicopters and they’ve got those back at Ft. Wainwright now.”

An 11th Airborne Division release says the 30-minute recording loop captures aircraft altitude, attitude, air speed and heading, among other information.

Pennell says additional investigators at the crash site are “taking measurements and looking at the debris from the crashed aircraft and trying to piece together what they think might have happened.”

Pennell says the crash occurred as the two helicopters were returning from training to Fort Wainwright from an aerial gunnery range in the Donnelly Training Area southeast of Fairbanks. There were no known weather or visibility issues.

“I can’t tell you whether it was clear blue skies or cloudy or anything like that, but there were no particular weather warnings for that area at that time,” he said.

Pennell says the wreckage will eventually be transported out of the remote location by helicopter, but he can’t say much more about the investigation.

“The investigation will take as long as the investigation takes, and once its completed then the team from the Army Safety Center will brief the command as to what they found,” he said.

The Army grounded non-critical flying Friday in response to the Alaska helicopter crash and a previous one in Kentucky that killed 9. All active units are required to complete additional training during the pause, which is scheduled to end Friday.

In Alaska, Pennell says the 11th Airborne is only flying as much as it has to for the investigation.

A private memorial service for the 3 soldiers killed in the crash — Christopher Robert Eramo, Stewart Duane Wayment, and Kyle D. McKenna — was held Thursday afternoon at Ft. Wainwright.

Pennell says the division has been shaken by the crash and loss.

“We’re just trying to step forward and do everything we can to support those folks who have been left behind, and figure out why, and then going forward try to make sure it doesn’t happen again,” he said.

Pennell says the soldier who was injured in the crash is out of the hospital and recovering at home.

The U.S. Attorney’s Alaska office has charged a Delta Junction couple with conspiracy and wire fraud for bilking investors out of more than $700,000 they thought would be used to develop a marijuana theme park in Salcha.

FBI investigators say Brian and Candy Corty used false and fraudulent claims to get 22 people around the country to invest a total of $722,000 in a project the Cortys referred to as a “marijuana theme park” they called “Bud and Breakfast.”

One of those people, a resident of New York City, invested $200,000 in the venture, according to a U.S. Attorney’s Office affidavit. A North Carolina resident invested $25,000.

The affidavit says that from 2017 to 2020, the Cortys enticed those prospective investors to buy shares of their company, Ice Fog Holdings, to finance development of a marijuana cultivation, processing and retail facility at the site of the old Midway Lodge in Salcha, which the couple bought in 2018.

The affidavit says the Cortys told investors the attraction would “include glass ceilings so Ice Fog’s customers could lie in bed and watch the northern lights.”.

Fairbanks-based assistant U.S. attorney and lead prosecutor Ryan Tansey says they take investment fraud extremely seriously.

“Our office, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, is going to use all the resources that we have to investigate and hold culpable parties accountable in cases like this,” he said in an interview Wednesday.

Brian Corty declined to comment about the case on tape Wednesday evening. But he said in a written response that, “An indictment is merely an allegation and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.”

Corty allegedly told investors beginning in mid-2017 that he expected the company’s profits would grow quickly, from $3.8 million in the first year to more than $23 million after three years. And he said their investments would grow 30-fold.

But the project never came to fruition. Investigators say the Cortys and as-yet unnamed co-conspirators knew the business had no real revenue potential, and little to no prospect of obtaining a license from the state Alcohol and Marijuana Control Office.

They also said the Cortys used the money from investors for personal purposes.

According to a news release issued Wednesday by the U.S. Attorney’s Alaska office, an FBI investigation into the case continues with assistance from the Alaska Department of Law.

The Cortys are scheduled to be arraigned on Monday at the federal courthouse in Fairbanks on charges that include three counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.