A home that was flooded by the Matanuska River two weeks ago is slowly sinking over the riverbank now, after an effort to protect it from riverbank erosion with sandbags failed. The swollen Matanuska is undermining it and Matanuska Susitna Borough emergency official Casey Cook says the structure is disintegrating.
The house was abandoned earlier this month, along with a second house on the property. Cook says the Borough is has not yet declared an emergency situation for the affected homeowners. Two houses in the Butte area near Palmer and three houses in Sutton are affected by high water.
APTI Reporter-Producer Ellen Lockyer started her radio career in the late 1980s, after a stint at bush Alaska weekly newspapers, the Copper Valley Views and the Cordova Times. When the Exxon Valdez ran aground in Prince William Sound, Valdez Public Radio station KCHU needed a reporter, and Ellen picked up the microphone.
Since then, she has literally traveled the length of the state, from Attu to Eagle and from Barrow to Juneau, covering Alaska stories on the ground for the AK show, Alaska News Nightly, the Alaska Morning News and for Anchorage public radio station, KSKA
elockyer (at) alaskapublic (dot) org | 907.550.8446 | About Ellen
