An "incredible" downpour that brought Seward's Resurrection River nearly to flood stage in a matter of hours overnight Sunday was headed toward Valdez and Cordova on Prince William Sound.
According to a flood advisory from the National Weather Service's Anchorage office extended until noon Monday, the Seward area averaged nearly half an inch of rain an hour overnight Sunday. Another half inch could fall in the area Monday morning.
"At (2:28 a.m. Monday), reporting gauges indicate 4.5 inches of rain have fallen since (4 p.m. Sunday) at the Seward Airport," forecasters wrote. "It is possible that a portion of the runway at the Seward Airport will be covered with water during high tide, which occurs around noon today."
The advisory was driven by the same weather system that brought high winds, downed trees and widespread power outages to Southcentral Alaska overnight Sunday, with thousands of utility customers losing power from Sterling to Willow.
National Weather Service meteorologist Joe Wegman called the overnight rains in Seward "incredible" but noted that the Resurrection River had already reached its peak level.
"It looks it's already crested so it's starting to come down," Wegman said.
Part of the Seward Airport runway is frequently flooded by rains similar to Sunday's, Wegman said. No confirmation of flooding had been received by Monday morning.
Meteorologists were turning their attention to potentially rising rivers amid heavy rain Monday northeast of Seward, for which a special weather statement was issued early Monday.
"For the most part the rain's over for most of Southcentral," Wegman said. "We are concerned for portions of eastern Prince William Sound, such as Valdez and Cordova — they're expected to get a similar amount of rain, such as 4 to 6 inches quickly."