ANCHORAGE, Alaska — High water on Southcentral Alaska rivers, and an interior wildfire are keeping emergency managers busy after a week of warm, sunny weather.
Several waterways near Anchorage are swollen and near flood-stage, though by Monday evening forecasters expected levels to drop.
The unusually high levels on Eagle River, Campbell Creek, Ship Creek, and others are the result of very mild weather last week, which quickly melted snow and glaciers at higher elevations, causing a torrent downstream, The National Weather Service said.
“We had a very hefty snowpack and then we had a pretty cool spring,” said Ben Balk, NWS hydrologist.
Now that it's cloudy and cool, water levels are decreasing and so too is the risk of flooding.
"That should suppress a lot of the snow and glacier melt," Balk said.
The only reports of damage came from near Seward, where a couple homes close to creeks took on water, the Kenai Peninsula Borough said.
