Events of the Flood with LOTS of pictures!

I know I posted about the flood in Galena but I wanted to post some pictures and give a better chain of events of what happened. I haven't really been in the mood to write about it since I have been trying to forget about it.I am still feeling the effects of the flood. Anytime a loud siren goes of or water starts rushing down the road I tend to head for higher ground. Even my kids make comments about the flood. Kaden said the other day after it rained a lot and the roads were flooding, "Mom it's a good thing Abuelo lives on a really tall hill, We won't have to evacuate here." So now that my mind is somewhat settled from the ordeal I will write and post some pictures of things that happened. I didn't take any of these pictures so I am taking no credit for them. They were posted on a Galena Rescue website and they were taken by many different people. I just wanted to give you an idea of what happened.

 It all started Sunday morning May 26th. I have posted every year of the anticipation of the Yukon river breaking up. It is always an exciting time of the year, meaning summer is upon us. This year was really late and that was kind of expected due to the fact that the ice was REALLY thick this year. Sunday morning we arrived at church and people were all talking about the ice finally started to move. We were very excited and planned to have church, eat potluck really fast and then head down to the river to watch it like we do every year. When we arrived at the river however, it was not like any other year. It had already risen to the bank about 6 feet in the few hours of church. Keith went over to one of the ladies measuring and keeping track of the rising water and was talking to her. I could see Keith's face change from excitement to a look of worry. I could tell he started to already make a plan in his head. After years of preparing for hurricanes he automatically started to make a list of pre disaster TO DOs. While he stayed talking to the lady, I drove home real fast to get his work keys and phone to start making calls. After picking him up we rushed to the office and started to assess what needed to be done now and what needed to be done later. While he started removing all computers and important equipment, the boys played in the office and I carried  filing cabinet drawers up to the second floor. Just in case. It was then that Keith made the decision to start moving vehicles and equipment to higher ground. Keith, the boys and I started moving equipment up to the dike which is the wall built by the air force to protect the runway and then air force base. Now the base is used for the GILA boarding school. The dike is the highest point in Galena and so Keith and I thought it best to move the vehicles there. The river was really moving fast which was encouraging since that meant the water was not jamming and was still flowing. It was rising up to the edge of the bank and over flowing in to the sloughs that had culverts. At this point we were feeling safe and secure that it would continue to move.

 Here I am in front of Keith's Office watching the river. 

See that smile on my face.... It would not last to much longer!

 

 

 We were suppose to have the Tulloch family over for the next week as the moved to a new house. They were remodeling their new house before moving in and we were excited that they were going to be staying with us before Wendy and the girls flew to Montana and Ross went to do his summer fishing.  They had come over and dropped off 2 freezers and some other gear that we were going to watch over the summer while they were gone. But by the end of the day so many roads were washed out between our house and theirs that they couldn't get over to our house safely so they hunkered down at some friends house till they could get back over to our house.

Here is a road that is washing out on Sunday evening.

 

 Monday May 27th. Memorial Day! A national holiday! A day we will never forget! We spent a very restless night of sleep. I kept getting up and checking out our bed room window to the slough behind our house.We really thought our house was high enough. I knew if water got to our house we would ALL be in terrible trouble..... The river seemed to have remained pretty steady all night long with no real surges coming inland.  But that didn't last long. Around 9:00am the emergency siren went off for a while.This meant that the water had risen and was breaching the ban and people in old town needed to evacuate to the school. The school is the evacuation center. It is the highest point in Galena. Keith, the boys and I jumped into the car and drove down to the office in old town to check things there.

 Here we are in front of some ice that was pushed up on the bank

The boys playing in front of the river

 

 Watching from Keith's office yard

 

While we were standing outside talking to friends who were watching the river with us this loud crushing river came to a silent stand still. I had never heard a more ERIE sound then that sound of a VERY VERY loud slushie machine coming to a complete silence. Keith and I turned to the water that we had just video it cruising by and saw that the water and ice just STOPPED!It was very freaky!

This is the reason the river stopped. A 2 mile piece of ice got stuck on this really sharp bend in the river. 

The water then started to back up behind it.

 This is right when the river stopped moving!

 

 We drove down to the end of the dike to see how high it was reaching there.  Keith and a friend John were looking at these cool birds. And as they watched the birds, I made marks in the sand about a foot from the waters edge to monitor if it was rising. We watched a few birds fly from here to there and when I looked back down at the water, I realized it was coming REALLY fast! I told Keith we needed to go now!

 We headed back to the Office to check it out again and stopped to take some pictures of old town.

 This was taken at our Post office, which later was under water.

 

 This is the street where Wendy and Ross used to live on. It is also the street where I have previously blogged about July Fourth celebrations, with all the races and fun we used to have.

 

 OK here is Keith's Office yard that the boys were just playing on. 

 I was moving the cones so no one would drive into that deep water, now that  I think of it,

 I don't think that really mattered any more!

 

Had to believe we were JUST standing there with the boys!

It was coming in fast!

After checking the office and doing all we could for that, we then decided to head back to new town the area we live in and check on our neighbors. We had to drive the back road because the main road (Tiger Freeway what we call it) was washed out. Thankfully the city had built a higher road called Louden Loop that was the backup road to drive in case of flooding. We sure needed it today! But something nobody expected happened. The pressure of the water coming in from the river bent the culvert up,preventing the water to exit to the next slough. This caused the pressure of the water to wipe out the culvert. Thankfully we had just crossed it, but the problem was now that we were truely cut off from the only escape route we had to the airport, which was the ONLY way to get out of Galena. things got critical from that point on.  Old town was being over run with water and the only safe place was inside the dike which was now cut off from new town due to the road washing away.

 

  

This is after it was washed away! There is an amazing video of this and I will try to find it and post it! it shows the pure force of water!

 

 

We stopped by Chris and Shell and helped them catch some chickens(Note to self: next time just shoot them!Or let them drown) We helped move some other stuff around but the water kept rising and I told Keith we needed to go check on our neighbor Karin who had twisted her ankle the day before and Tim was at his sisters wedding in Dominican Republic. We got home and checked the slough behind our house. This is the slough that just this week we had crossed to go get birch sap, I have never seen this slough with water. It is usually a grass bed. Well today it wasn't. It was a pond that was bringing the water closer and closer to our house.Keith went to help neighbors tie down gas tanks and anything else.  I kept an eye on the water and trying to calm the boys down I turned on some cartoons for them to watch. Ida came and joined them so Karin and I could move stuff to higher ground. We hurried to help people move stuff around our neighbor hood. When I came around the corner of the back of our house and realized the snow-machine was already getting touched by water. I quickly called Keith telling him to COME NOW the snow machine is getting wet! At this point in time we then were busy moving, log splitters, snow-machines, freezers,(the ones that tullochs just dropped off) which were under our house. Our neighbors daughter Romay came and helped us move stuff up to our driveway. She was a blessing! I know she and Keith goof off and tease each other like siblings do, but today she was all business. We could not have done a lot with out her! Thanks Romay!

This picture I had to post because for years Keith has told me NOT to drive the snow machine on gravel. It gets in the tracks and can hurt it and scratch the skies and all these other excuses, so while he rushed to find the key for it I laid out a path of ply wood for him to drive on.This is as far as I got when he came running down and said forget the boards and drove on the gravel. glad I didn't have to make that decision (We just paid off that snow machine earlier that month and took off the insurance for it...... Who knew a flood would come and drowned it? But thankfully Keith was able to flush it and save it!)

 

Our neighbors yard, the water reached his house first

Our house the Island. This is the point where the song by Simon and Garfunkel comes to mind and I want to burst into karaoke. I think I was actually singing this while sitting on the porch watching the water rise higher.

 "I am a Rock, I am and Island!

This is all the wood we got this year and sadly it ALL floated away! 

All of it! I have a feeling this Fall instead of berry picking we will be searching the forest for all our wood!

Nothing more discouraging then loosing 6 cords of wood

Karin and Tim's house. Need a canoe to get there!.... Some of our wood floated to their house so now they have some! Karin you can consider it a Re-House Warming gift hehehehe

Karin and Ida moved over to our house so we could join forces and be safe. At this point the emergency siren went off and didn't stop for what seemed like an hour but I am not really sure how long they ran it. It was the siren to say EVERYONE come to the school to be evacuated by plane. I ran to my neighbor Ms. Virginia and told her to go. Her friend Ms. Margret was with her and I told them they need to go to the school because then people would know where they were to evacuate. After getting them to the school I ran home in time for the electricity to go off. They turned it off because water had reached the transformers. Panic was starting to run over me, but Karin, Keith and I stopped and prayed for safety and wisdom on the choices we needed to make. Karin had returned from the school where she was asking what the next step was in this disaster. She said that they were bringing in planes to evacuate people. We were all hesitant to go since both Karin and us had dogs. But a friend who was staying told Karin she would look after Karin's dogs so Karin took Ida and her gear to the school to evacuate to the airport. Keith and I talked about it for a bit and decided he would stay and I would evacuate with the boys. Talk about my heart stopping! I didn't feel great about leaving my husband behind. Keith told me to pack a bag to take with us, so I grabbed clothes for the boys and I and all the passports, birth certificates and money. Then we got in the car and drove to the school. They directed us to boats across the street that would take us to the airport. Thankfully I got in the boat with Karin and Ida. I was amazed at how high the water had gotten. But it didn't really hit me till we had to get in a boat and drive down tiger freeway which was completely covered with water and we had to drive a boat all the way from the school to the airport dike in a boat. I didn't grab a camera but this is a picture someone took of the road. We had to dodge ice in our small boats. Not only was the water high, but it was VERY cold and ice was a floating hazard. Visions of Titanic kept flashing through my mind. If an Iceberg can sink a huge ship how were our boats going to manage! I held my kids close and prayed the whole trip!

 

 Here is a picture from the air of a boat arriving to meet the bus.

I am not sure of the time due to the fact that we have 24 hours of light this time of year and I didnt'have a watch, but i figure it was about 5 pm. We arrived at the dike loaded on to a school bus and they drove us down to the airport. When we arrived there, Shawn (the airport manager) was telling us all the flights were canceled because the situation was not "critical"enough! WHAT!!! He said if anyone had any strings to pull with anyone to get planes here call them now! My first thought was call Tracey Mcdonnell!!(Keith's boss in Anchorage.) I gave Karin her cell phone number and called her with Karin's satellite phone. I also overheard Shell calling some missionary pilots around Alaska. I am so glad I have friends in many places. The airport shut down and they bussed people over to the dorms to wait till we knew what to do. Karin and I missed the bus so we walked over to the dorms. It was SO HOT! Come to find out we had record breaking HEAT wave through out the flood and after. Nothing like going from the coldest May to the hottest in a matter of a week! We got to the dorms and Ben(one of the school staff) was handing out water. It was so delicious!! Karin and I went up to the second floor to wait. I HATE WAITING!! There were lists being made of people needing to be evacuated and then new list being made. I don't know what all we were signing up for, all I know is I wanted to get out with my kids! Karin went down to check on stuff and ended up helping with making lists. A little while later I saw Shell coming down the hall and said she was on the phone with Gunner Johnson who had planes coming and wanted to know if i wanted to evacuate with Shell and the kids. I talked to Gunner and said yes. I called Keith telling him I was flying out with Shell and that I would call when I figured out where I was flying to. The boys and I then moved down to the room where Shell and her kids were as well as Susan and her granddaughter. The kids were happy to be with friends and thankfully Shell had thought of bring some food. The kids ate some while we figured out what we were doing, prayed, and waited. Shell was called a lot to verify that the dike was still holding and no water was breaching it. If that would happen our rescue by plane would have flown out the window and something more drastic would have to take place. Around 10:30pm Shell said we should head down stairs and over to the airport.  With 6 kids ranging from 7years old down to 2, we all walked slowly down the road. The kids did AMAZING!!! They all were great, not complaining, and took care of each other. It took about 15 minutes to walk to the airport. When we arrived there we ran into more friends and neighbors. We all stood talking and waiting. I can not tell you the RELIEF when we heard planes coming in for landing! 2 small 5-6 seater planes came in and Shell said "There they are!" PRAISE THE LORD!! Shawn called our name and we walked out to the planes.When the pilots got out all I could do was hug them!  These were missionary pilots that came to the rescue when we needed them! We all disscussed where we wanted to fly to and we all decided that Fairbanks would be the best place to go since our husbands would probably go there, plus all of us had vehicles there. Once we got to Fairbanks we could drive other places if we needed to. We then loaded up in the planes. I loaded with Susan and Laila and my boys. Shell went with her kids in the other plane. I got to sit in the front seat with the pilot. I am not sure that was such a great idea because I get sick. But it was really cool to sit where I could see out in front of me.At 11pm, Both planes taxied out to the run way and together we took off. It was awesome! Being able to look out the window and wave at Shell as we lifted off was comforting! What we saw from the air was discouraging! So much water, not enough land, and I had just left my husband there! I don't think Susan and I stopped crying the whole trip to Fairbanks. Here was just so much damage done to our homes! The kids fell asleep and of course I got sick, but I think the pilot knew I was anxious and talked to me most of the trip, till I fell asleep after an exhausting day! We landed about 2 hours later. It was weird, as we flew, we watched the sunset, and rise in the same flight! The GPS even went from day to night and then to day again all in the same 2 hour flight! Only in Alaska! We arrived in Fairbanks it was cold and the boys had shorts on, when we got out of the plane I grabbed the jackets that I did remember to grab on the way out of the house when we left.There were a few people that I didn't know waiting for us.  But they hugged us and said they were Shells friends and we were going to their house to sleep. Exhaustion was taking over my body and all I did was shake my head. They grabbed my boys and put them in the warm heated cars. My boys were at the breaking point and honestly so was I. Susan's family came to pick her up and a few minutes later Shells plane landed. They had to stop and get gas on at another location.When she landed, she loaded in a car and we drove to a friend Debbie's house. her husband filled a few glasses of cold water. how refreshing! They showed us to rooms and I put the boys on the bed. they fell asleep in an instant. I didn't sleep well because I was worried about Galena, my home and my husband. I couldn't call him because the phones were all dead and cell service was out. I tossed and turned all night. fearing fro my husbands safety was scaring me! I prayed a lot in those few hours. A few hours later, I heard Debbie come in and go through the closet. I asked what was wrong, she said another plane full of people was coming in and that her church was being opened for a shelter. She was grabbing sleeping bags and sheets for the people coming in. I asked her if she knew who was flying out and she said Chris(Shells husband) was but she didn't know who else. I told her if she saw Keith to tell him where I was. Around 6am, I heard someone coming down the stairs and I turned to look thinking it was Debbie grabbing something else but in walks Keith! RELIEF!! I jumped up and hugged him like crazy! he got out on the Samaritans Purse flight and they even brought Daisy our dog! And knowing my good friend Wendy and her girls got out safely too made me relax. I was worried about them because they were stranded on their street and couldn't get out.But they had made it and Keith had too! When he laid down next to me and the boys I thought "Everything we have may be gone or damaged but all that was important to me was laying in the bed next to me!And we were safe!" and I feel asleep for a few hours.The next day we moved over to the church where other friends had been taken to that night. I already wrote about all they did for us. They were amazing! So read back a few posts about the generosity of others.

Here are some pictures of Keith evacuating

 

 This is the dike, The water was breaching it  in some places and some people were using soil and dozers to build it higher.

 Pretty Moon

 

 Keith in the plane. He also got to sit with the pilot

 

View of the river.

 Here are some pictures of Galena and the flood. I didn't take any of these so I can take no credit but you can see the damage done!

From the air, this is the clinic, school, city offices, pool building and many homes.

The Clinic

 The only dry land for miles around is the area inside the dike.

 

This is the edge of the river that is flooding into Old town.

 Not only did we have to be careful of forceful Freezing water but we had to watch out for Giant ice sheets, some as big as football fields. Check out this picture of ice and houses.(This picture was taken up river in another town but you can see how big the ice is compared to the houses)

The highest point in Galena, this is where we parked our car, thankfully it was high enough!

Homes underwater.

Around town, The Radio Station

The Catholic Church

The Baseball field, You can't even see the 12 foot fence!

Clinic and City offices

Elder Center

Sweetsirs gas and Grocery store

Community Hall

School playground

This is Wayne, Keith's co workers Garage

So much debris

So much wood lost! That is hours and HOURS of collecting by cutting trees, dragging a few home, cutting, stacking and doing it again! MANY MANY HOURS!!

This picture makes me sad all these car ruined! And even more sad is I was going to take that yellow Hummer(my dream car) for a ride. Should have done it when I had a chance! It has survived fire, freezing,  I don't know if survived flood.

 

The Ice finally broke a few days later. After the flood, all the ice was left where it was pushed. Here are some pictures of the ice and buildings moved around town

This is Keith's office,where we were standing earlier in the post.

This is the area where we always have spring carnival.. This is the boat ramp

Martin and Silke old house, There used to be a pretty garden built here but the ice took it all away

The little brown house that is right in the middle, it was picked up and moved to that location. It used to be on the Right side of the yellow house!

Some people lost EVERYTHING!

Chris Kopp our pastor showing how high the water mark is on his garage.

 He had a lot of water in his house too!

Lots of places have not drained due to the fact there are no culverts to drain into the river. This is the baseball field  and the community garden where we usually grow veggies is in the back ground. Guess the moose won't get the cabbage this year!

I will post pictures of the Recovery effort later.