Wednesday's flooding along an airport road in the Northwest Arctic Borough village of Deering due to Inmachuck River ice jams has prompted a pair of disaster declarations, state officials said Thursday.
Jeremy Zidek, a spokesman for the state Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, said that waters over the road -- which the National Weather Service said were 3 feet deep Wednesday -- had been deep enough that boats were needed to pass, but levels were falling Thursday.
"The water has receded a bit and they are able to get a four-wheeler over the area that had flooded," Zidek said. "We haven't heard any reports of homes being inundated or anything like that."
The Northwest Arctic Borough on Thursday dispatched an assessment team to Deering to help monitor the situation on the ground. Northwest Arctic Borough Mayor Clement Richards Sr. said his office was receiving regular updates on the situation in the village.
"At this point, there's nobody hurt and no property damage, but there's still ice jams and there's still about 2 feet of water on the road," Richards said around 3 p.m. Thursday.
Meadow Bailey, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, said the local airport was open and flyable, with flood damage apparently confined to the road. She said an estimated 90 percent of the mile-long airport road had been submerged during the flooding.
"There is some minor damage that will need to be repaired, but we'll have to wait for the water to recede before we can make those repairs," Bailey said. "We are still working with the borough to identify what repairs need to be made and when they can be made."
An updated alert from the National Weather Service extended the flood warning until 3:45 p.m. Friday, with the water levels expected to continue fluctuating.
There are two ice jams: one at the mouth of the river and another upstream from the village. If the upstream jam breaks and unleashes the water it's been holding back while the river mouth is still clogged with ice, it could cause further flooding in Deering, the Weather Service warned.
"At this point, everybody's watching and observing," Richards said, adding that because the flooding separates the community from its airport runway, helicopters may need to be called in if the situation called for a sudden evacuation.
Officials in Deering weren't immediately available for comment Thursday.
Zidek said that both the city and the borough had issued disaster declarations, enabling them to tap internal emergency funds.
The borough's only request to the state so far has been for the potential use of DOT equipment to move materials after the waters recede, Zidek said. There wasn't any word of a request to Gov. Bill Walker for a larger disaster declaration.
"At this time, I don't think they've requested the state make a disaster declaration," Zidek said. "It all depends on the road, the ownership and who pays for that road to determine whether a disaster declaration would be necessary."