ALASKA: Floodwaters destroy remote village; residents airlifted to safety

Worst flood in decades crushes Episcopal church

By Pat McCaughan, May 12, 2009 [Episcopal News Service] Some residents of remote Alaskan areas were evacuated to safety May 12 after the state's worst flooding in decades heaved ice blocks the size of houses onto land, completely destroying one village, including an Episcopal Church..

On Tuesday, St. Matthew's Episcopal Church in Fairbanks served as a staging area for about 50 evacuees from Tanana, a village of 250 located on the Yukon River, said parish administrator Hilary Freeman.

"They're just coming in now from the village and I'm told there are three more planes coming in from Tanana," she said amid the sound of children playing. "They brought elders, young mothers, and babies, little ones."

No deaths or injuries had been reported but the flooding, caused by an unusually warm spring thaw, last week destroyed the village of Eagle and along with it, St. John's Church, according to the Rev. David Blanchett, the Episcopal Diocese of Alaska's representative for Alaska VOAD, or Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster.

"We've lost the church," Blanchett said in a telephone interview from his Wasilla office. "I talked to the village chief, Joyce Roberts, who is on the ground there. The Episcopal Church is not salvageable. It splintered; it's in pieces. There's a lot of contamination, because of the oil and fuel in the floodwaters.

"They have to climb over ice boulders," added Blanchett, who is also the disaster preparedness coordinator for the diocese. "There are houses that are precariously on top of ice boulders and other structures that are crushed. The graveyard crosses are gone."

Blanchett said the Tanana Chiefs Conference was "on the ground" in Tanana and other affected areas, coordinating rescue and relief efforts and beginning to assess damage. "We are waiting for the assessment team to come back so we can get an idea of what's really happening and what is needed," he said.

He said he intended to teleconference with representatives from the Tanana Chiefs Conference (TCC), the American Red Cross, Episcopal Relief and Development and other first responders at a Thursday May 14 meeting "as we begin to move into the recovery stage. Right now we are in the relief stage. The waters have receded from Eagle, but we still have villages underwater."

Telephone lines were down and Blanchett said he did not yet know the status of churches in other affected areas, including: St. Andrew's Church in Stevens Village; St. James, Tanana; and St. Matthew's Mission in Beaver.

But, he added that: "We are trying to have an Episcopal presence in the flood areas so that they know we care and also so that we can assess what is needed so we can try to help them in the recovery stage of it."

He said the National Guard was taking 400-gallon water tanks to Eagle as first responders began damage assessments. The American Red Cross had opened a shelter and about 70 Eagle residents were receiving assistance there. Some evacuees and first responders were using a Tanana school as a staging area, he said.

Meanwhile, those wishing to assist evacuees and others may do so via check, earmarked for flood relief, and sent to the Episcopal Diocese of Alaska, 1205 Denali Way, Fairbanks, AK 99701.

John Yates, TCC's continuing care coordinator, was at St. Matthew's, helping to provide food and lodging options to evacuees.

He said the flooding happened after unseasonably warm weather followed "a really cold winter with a lot of snow. Instead of the ice melting gradually, it broke up in great big chunks and when the water flowed against it, it flooded several villages, some worse than others."

TCC is a non-profit organization with a membership of Native governments from 42 Interior Alaska communities. Based in Fairbanks, it serves a population of 86,130, including about 10,000 Natives, over a 235,000-square-mile area, nearly the size of Texas.

Fairbanks is surrounded by 47 smaller communities of 20 to 1,000 people, with primarily subsistence economies (hunting, fishing and gathering) where unemployment ranges from 20-90 percent. Average annual income for a family of four is about $12,800, compared to $43,316 for a typical four-person Alaska family. The villages' cost of living is estimated at 30-40 percent higher than that of Anchorage or Fairbanks, according to the TCC website.

Only nine of the villages are accessible by road; the remainder may be reached via air or river, from June through mid-September.

Meanwhile, Yates said on Tuesday that St. Matthew's parish hall was filled with people. The church "has been wonderful to us, to everybody. They've always opened their doors.

"Things are kind of chaotic here," he added. "A lot of the evacuees are upset. The main thing we want to do right now is to let them know that people care. Later, they'll need help, to shovel up the mud. But, for now, they're safe. They're being well cared for. There's a lot of love here."

-- The Rev. Pat McCaughan is Episcopal Life Media correspondent for Provinces VII and VIII and the House of Bishops. She is based in Los Angeles.

» Respond to this article

Browse by Topic:

Browse by Topic: 2009 »   Anglican and Global Relations   Children, Youth and Young Adults   Congregational Ministries   Ecumenical and Inter-Religious   Education   Ethnic Ministries   Executive Council   FEAST: Faith, Environment, Action, Science, Technology   General Convention   House of Bishops   Liturgy and Music   Millennium Development Goals   Peace and Justice   Presiding Bishop   Program, Budget and Finance   Women and the Church