May 9, 2009: Yukon Destroys Eagle
 

I was perusing the pictures on Wunderground and came across these sad pictures by a guy named AlaskaMark.
He's recorded the aftermath of an ice jam flood destroying the Village of Eagle, Alaska, by the Yukon River in March of this year.
The river rose 34 feet and slammed the village with huge ice floes. It also flooded the City of Eagle just to the west of the village.

http://cellar.org/2009/Yukon1.jpg

Nobody wading in that cold water trying to salvage belongings

http://cellar.org/2009/yukon2.jpg

The village's only store, only restaurant and most of the other buildings appear to be a total loss.
Alaska, in March, is not someplace you want to be forced out of your home. Hopefully everyone is safe. :(

There are two sets of pictures, here and here.

I just heard about this on NPR today. Those are some pretty stout homes. Maybe they will survive the ride down river and in the summer they can go pick them up and put them back again. I doubt it. Great pics.

Weird! All that ice and look at the hills no sign of snow or cold at all.

Eagle, AK
 

This breaks my heart. I've been to Eagle and have friends there. It is a beautiful historic community in the Alaskan interior. I hope the town can recoup, but it will be hard work and very expensive...

:thepain3: :cry: :mecry:

I wonder if that building in the first pic is the restaurant/store. ajaccio, do you know?
What a charming building.

It's very sad.

From here.

Interesting to note that the previous historic peak of the Yukon at Eagle was in 1937.

The photos on the Wunderground link have descriptions. The restaurant is a different one, I think.

I couldn't find a description on that photo. I'll look at the others.


edit: Oh, OK, I see it in the second set of photos. Thanks! A private residence then? The deck sliding along the side made me think it looked like a public establishment.

Eagle building ...
 

Shawnee, I'm not sure either. It's been 10 years since I was there, but I sure remember that little restaurant.

By the way the "City" of Ealge mentioned in the original post is another small town where the residents are all native Alaskans. As far as I know, it's only called a "city" to differentiate it from the Anglo town. We are talking about remote intimate communities here. I saw no pictures of the damage to it, but some of their buildings are close to the waterfront, too.

The hills are snow covered, it's just not deeper than the trees are tall. Down along the river it's melted, causing the river to rise.

Heh, I thought that too Bruce until I saw this photo of Eagle Bluff

Damn. One of my life-long fantasies is to motorcycle ride the alaskan highway. A guy here in town built a bike up and rode to Key West, then from Key West, to Prudhoe Bay. Talk about an iron ass...

And a failed spinal column.

I drove the Alcan.

In October..
Don't go then on a motorcycle.

I thought this would be an eagle vs windshield thread. As it is, it is even more sad. What a bitch.

At least it's paved now.