Emmonak Flooded Yesterday

But the focus late Saturday was on downriver villages of Emmonak and Alakanuk. Water rose rapidly in both communities Friday night, and villagers were bracing for more high water today. Emmonak has more than 700 residents, and Alakanuk has just over 600. State emergency management officials are monitoring the situation closely.

Many houses in the villages had several feet of river water around them Saturday night, but the water appeared to be going down, residents reported. Flooding is common in the region this time of year as the river breaks up, and many dwellings sit on pilings several feet above the tundra.

Utilities in Emmonak were still functioning, though earlier in the day water rose within 6 inches of the power plant, said city manager Martin B. Moore, Sr.

No one from either community had been evacuated, and the water levels were within the norm for spring flood conditions, said Ben Balk, a Weather Service hydrologist in Anchorage who was tracking the river's breakup. Moore said Emmonak opened a school building as a shelter in case the flooding worsened. As of 8 p.m. Saturday, only one family was using it.

The road to the Emmonak airport was underwater much of the day, but the runway, which is on higher ground, was clear. Passengers were being ferried by boat. In the rest of the village, people were still able to travel by truck or four-wheeler, Moore said.

http://www.adn.com/news/environment/flooding/story/806132.html

Emmonak sits in the midst of a fan-shaped delta about 10 miles from the sea. Many residents spent the day watching the river, where ice chunks the size of houses floated by. Children canoed through the streets. People get a charge out of break-up, Moore explained. They were busy checking their boats and thinking about summer.

Emmonak update - Ice Broke

Emmonak: the river ice broke yesterday afternoon and they are now having moderate to major flooding. I spoke to my friend in Emmonak and she said that water was all the way up to her house which is behind the school. The Emmonak stores are closed. She wasn’t sure if anyone had to evacuate from the low lying houses.

If water is behind the school, the water is probably in my old apartment. The houses that are behind the school are higher than where I used to live. Both stores are elevated so unless ice chunks cause problems, they might be ok. The sewage lagoon is behind the school, I hope water did not get into it.

The whole town had electricity off today

Today the electricity was off from 9AM to Noon. I was expecting a fax from Portland so I had to call and tell them to fax it at 8:30. I got the fax and returned the fax just before the electricity was out. The whole town was without power. I am back to walking on the frozen Yukon to test out my knee. It wears out and gets tired but so far so good.

Frozen Yukon River

Today it was -11 degrees and it warmed up to 5 degrees above zero today. Super sunny though. It is still super white and lots of snow on the ground. I like the white. I am not looking forward to the dirt and dust which is normal around here.

smokehouse and housing

smoke house

Another picture of a smoke house.

smoke house

I just found out that they use these old houses as smoke houses to smoke the salmon.

Emo Main Road

This road has the Post Office to the right and the VPO (Village Police Office) to the left. The State Troopers are also to the left. Straight ahead is the Village Clinic and Dental Office. We do have a few vehicles but they must be barged in in the summer or fall. The fuel for cars, boats and even homes must also be barged in.

Typical Emo Housing

Here is typical Emmonak housing in April 2008. Last year at this time, there was no snow, just dirt on the roads.

More snow than past few years

I was talking to someone from Emmonak and they were telling me that we have much more snow than the past few years. The ice on the Yukon is 4 feet thick, which is normal. Last year though, it was above freezing much more and the snow was gone. We are still getting snow and a warm day is 25 degrees, which feels warm. They said the ice breaking will be later this year because of the colder temperatures. Last year, the ice broke about May 20. they said the ice may not break until June because of the colder temps. They also said that we may have flooding in the town. They also mentioned that the ice breakups were much worse 10 or so years ago. Back then, where I live was the major river. Now, much of the ice is going down another finger of the river, so Emo is getting less ice.

fish net storage

This is right on the Yukon River. I walked to it on the frozen ice. These are all over the place here. Lots of fishing boats too. Nets and fishing gear is inside.

airplane picture

This shows the scrub brush in this area. This brush is the reason Moose is in the area. It gives moose food and a place to hide away. Fox also hide in the bush. Moose hunting is often done by snowmobile after the river freezes over. There is a designated moose season.
Notice the River meandering and also notice the airstrip and houses close to the river.
The Yukon River is over 1500 miles long. Melting upriver will cause flooding in our downriver area.

airplane picture

I am using old photos. I just learned that global warming is partly because we have less ice and snow on earth. Snow and ice reflects sunlight back into space. Land and water absorbs the sun's rays thus causing the earth to heat up.

It was +10 degrees yssterday and probably today too. The wind was blowing to make it minus zero feeling. I did not leave the apartment because I am trying to heal my knee.
I am ready for spring though - getting ready for warm weather. We got another few inches of snow. Everyone says this year the town is going to flood. Up the yukon river by Canada, it was 45 degrees yesterday. That will cause the snow upriver to melt which will get the water flowing. The ice on the river breaking up is a big deal here.

Mastadon tusk and tooth?

I had a local tell me about a 4 foot long tusk that is really old that she and her family found at a lake 45 minutes from here. It sounds like they found it some summer past. They also found a tooth about as big as a shoe box in this lake. In talking, it sounds like a mastadon tusk and tooth. She has it at her house. I told her that I want to get a picture of it before I go back to Portland. I hope to get a picture of them up but may not because I don't want to invade her privacy. I might just send it to those interested in an email. (Also, my device to download pictures broke! I need a new one.)

BOIL WATER ORDER

We have a boil water order for the town. We are using water from the Yukon River and we must boil it until further notice.
WARMER - 20 below and no wind for this Monday AM!

Yukon river road

This shows the Yukon River where the snow machines travel. It is like a regular highway.

Sunrise on the Yukon River

minus 15 degrees or so. We have had snow. 9:30 AM  Those are ATV tracks which I walk on to get onto the Yukon River for a walk.

the seal/ beaver slippers

These are the tops of the slippers.

Light color is seal, dark color is beaver

Pictures again!

I am back in the picture business. I borrowed a camera. We have lots of snow again. A bulldozer is plowing the town roads so we have lots of white here. It is about zero and it seems warm. We have not had a lot of wind which makes it seem mild.

THEY CAN'T LEAVE EMMONAK!

We had 60 high school students in Emmonak, sleeping in the school so they could play in our basketball tournament this past weekend. We also had a big funeral and a lot of people flew into town for that.

We had storms blow in this weekend too. Yesterday, Tuesday, we finally got all of the basketball players out of town. Planes could not fly in or out during the storms, so they were stuck. We had our kids and the extra 60 who were crashed on the hallway floor. We had to walk over kids to go from one part of the school to the other.

All students were flown out on Tuesday morning! We have about 4 teachers who were to go to a conference in Anchorage but they could not fly out. There was a storm in Bethel where they were to pick up more teachers. HOPEFULLY, they will be able to fly out today, Wednesday. (One teacher is buying supplies for a Super Bowl party bash - important stuff.)