Instant Break Up

The winter of 2008-09 was brutal, even by Interior Alaska standards. Breakup is proving no kinder. Record warmth at the end of April melted the snowpack over the space of a few days, filling rivers to overflowing and causing damage to towns and villages all over Alaska.

FAIRBANKS -- Water backed up by a massive ice jam on the Yukon River pushed house-sized chunks of ice over a retaining wall onto the streets of Eagle overnight Monday, dislodging several buildings and carrying others down the river as residents in the village along the Canada-Alaska border watched in awe.

“It's just incredible,” Ann Millard said by phone from the school, which has been converted to an emergency shelter to house displaced villagers whose homes were either destroyed, swept down the river or are full of water

“Enormous, huge chunks of ice, as big as a house,” she said of the ice that slammed into buildings on Front Street. “The grocery store is wiped out. The clinic is gone. The VPSO office is gone. The fire hall is flooded.

It's pretty scary,” Millard said.

The worst flooding in more than 70 years in Eagle entered its second day on Tuesday as an ice jam about 10 miles downstream refused to budge and continued to back up water and ice into the village on the bank of the Yukon River.

On Monday, the old village of Eagle, about two miles upstream of the main town, was destroyed as floodwaters lifted and carried off some homes and submerged others. Residents were evacuated to the new village, built on higher ground another three miles upstream, but there was no electricity in the new village because power lines had been knocked down by ice.

A rapid rise in the water level in the main part of town early Tuesday morning pushed ice over a retaining wall and up against a row of buildings along Front Street.

“The restaurant is floating around,” Jackie Helmer said. “The Eagle Trading Co. is there but it has ice up to the roof.

“The bed and breakfast is still standing,” she said. “It's kind of cockeyed but it's still there.”

Helmer, who has lived in Eagle for 22 years, was stunned.

“It's unbelievable,” she said of the scene in Eagle. “It's a disaster.”

Millard was one of several residents who evacuated their homes Monday night and was staying at the school. She said she counted 22 people sleeping at the school and about twice that were coming to the school for meals.

Residents in Eagle went to bed Monday thinking the worst was over only to awaken at about 4 a.m. to a rapid rise in the water when the ice jam shifted.

“I have riverfront property but we're built up fairly high, about 30 feet above the river,” Millard said. “The water didn't get into our house last night but it was very close.”

When she left her house, Millard said the river was filled bank to bank with jumble ice. She and other villagers watched in amazement as the ice shaved two islands in the middle of the river clear of trees.

“It would just take these huge spruce trees and shake ‘em and shake ‘em until they cracked and broke off,” she said. “It was incredible. Relentless.”

The state has established a Unified Command Center in Anchorage, and has an emergency coordinator in place daily in Eagle to help residents. A disaster relief team consisting of officials from various state departments, the Red Cross and the Tanana Chiefs Conference are scheduled to leave Wednesday for Eagle, said Jeremy Zidek, spokesman for the Alaska Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.

No injuries have been reported, but among buildings that have flooded were the community's health clinic and village public safety officer building. A temporary clinic has been established at the school.

"There is some concern about getting people medications," Zidek said. "We will make sure that all reasonable requests made by the community are addressed."

Additional observers from the state and the weather service also are monitoring river ice downstream from Eagle, toward Circle, and along the Kuskokwim River in western Alaska, where flooding was reported in the village of Aniak.

Flooding had subsided in Aniak on Tuesday, and Zidek said there was some road damage in the village. River watch teams on the Kuskokwim were expected to monitor the ice and possible effects on communities downstream, like Upper and Lower Kalstag.

Officials said it may be days before the ice jams near Eagle subside, but then a sudden onslaught of water rushing down the river becomes a concern for other communities, notably Circle in the next few days.

"We're thinking this may impact the village of Circle," said Ed Plumb with the National Weather Service in Fairbanks. "We've warned residents to get everything up higher and keep an eye out on the river.

This report includes information from The Associated Press