Flooding reported at Yentna River

The National Weather Service issued a flood warning for the western Susitna valley. The Yentna River is at flood stage as waters reached a height of 20.5 feet. The worst flooding is reported near Lake Creek and McDougall. Jamie Soovak with the McDougall Lodge reports that one of their cabins is flooded and that they’ve had water in the yard four times this month. Soovak said their fishing dock is flooded and they had to install an additional ramp to get their clients on the river for fishing.

Gary Leed at Lake Creek said that in the last three weeks, there were flood conditions on three occasions, each time getting progressively worse. Leed said today’s flood is the worse he has witnessed since 1995. He said the river spilled up to six inches over the banks. He said the Yentna river has been rising over the past two days and looks like it crested mid-morning  and that it is slowly coming down. Leed said that all lodges in the lake Creek area have water in their yard. He added that float plane traffic is not affected by the high water.

Joseph Delia at the Skwentna post office said that he’s seen worse, but he sees a lot of drifting debris on the river.  He adds that the post office is located up high and that there is no danger of flooding. Lake Creek and Skwentna residents report no rain and even a bit of sunshine in the area.

The Yentna Roadhouse, located at Fish Lakes Creek, is also not affected by the high water downstream.

The National Weather Service said heavy rain caused the rivers and streams to rise to flood stage. The service issued a warning for the western Susitna Valley until Thursday afternoon.

The Talkeetna River is not near flood stage.