Emmonak flood concerns subside quickly

MATT NEVALA

June 05, 2008 at 3:56PM AKST

All things being equal, lifelong Emmonak resident Anna Lee considered this season’s breakup somewhat subdued.

“I would say it was a quiet flood,” said Lee, who has lived in the village for 42 years.

Water flowed over the banks of the Kwigkuk River and into Emmonak on May 23. The flooding started behind the Alaska Commercial Co. store, into the downtown housing area and covered the main road by 6 p.m. that evening. The road to the airport was closed for a time.

“(The airport is) right by the river, some six feet away,” said Lee, the secretary at Emmonak School the last eight years. “It was all overflowed with water and ice.”

Families moved from low-lying areas to the village’s higher ground, and residents from Emmonak and nearby villages were put on flood watch for a few days. The National Weather Service warned of large amounts of ice coming down the Yukon River from Mountain Village.

“The water would come up and go back down,” Lee said. “But when I talked to some elders as we were watching the ice go by, they said this was nothing.

“They said back in the old days, they’d see big chunks of ice.”

Lee said things began getting back to normal by May 25 in the village 10 miles from the Bering Sea and 120 miles northwest of Bethel. She said village residents know what to expect as breakup nears.

“Every year, a lot of the people in the low areas put their snowmachines up and get ready just in case of an ice jam,” Lee said.

Lee said her house is located right in front of open tundra. Flood waters did reach her front yard May 23, but didn’t cause any damage to her home.

“There was some damage to the roads, but it will eventually all dry up,” she said.

Once the water clears and everything dries out, Lee said it’s easy to notice a difference in the demeanor of everyone in the village.

“It seems like the community stays quiet (up until breakup),” Lee said. “Now, people are ready to get their boats down, they start collecting wood for their wood stoves, and everybody starts moving around.”

Sharon Andrews, Emmonak’s acting postmaster, has lived in the village for 38 years.

When reached for flood comments last week, she said the worst was over.

“It’s all back to normal,” Andrews said. “The water has backed down and we can see the roads.”

Matt Nevala can be reached at (907) 348-2480 or toll free at (800) 770-9830, ext. 480.