Floods Bring Evacuations in Alaska Town
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: September 22, 2012
ANCHORAGE (AP) — Residents of the Alaska tourist town ofTalkeetna have been asked to leave because of the threat of flooding from the rain-swollen Talkeetna River.
“It’s beginning to look like an island,” Renamary Rauchenstein, a resident, said in an interview on Friday. “It’s rising pretty fast.”
Flooding from heavy rains is causing problems over a wide part of Alaska, from Talkeetna, near the base of Mount McKinley, to the port town of Seward, about 150 miles to the south. Many roads were closed or washed out, and landslides were reported.
Gov. Sean Parnell toured the area around Talkeetna by helicopter on Friday and landed to talk to some of the residents who fled their homes. The governor declared a state disaster for the areas hit by the flooding.
Talkeetna, about 75 miles north of Anchorage, is the last stop for climbers heading to Mount McKinley. It also has an eclectic population and has long been purported to be the inspiration for the Alaska town in the 1990s television series “Northern Exposure.”
The flooding and high winds have interrupted some passenger and freight train traffic since Tuesday, said Stephenie Wheeler, a spokeswoman for Alaska Railroad. Trains scheduled to travel north of the Anchorage suburb of Wasilla have been canceled at least until Monday. Crews were dealing with washouts and bridge damage in several areas along a 70-mile stretch of railway.
Overnight rain totals ranged from 0.5 inches to 1.5 inches north of Anchorage in theMatanuska-Susitna Borough, David Streubel, a National Weather Service hydrologist, said on Friday.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/23/us/talkeetna-alaska-faces-flooding.html
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