Borough issues early Talkeetna disaster declaration in bid to unlock millions for fixes, buyouts

What you need to know:

• The Mat-Su Borough Assembly approved a preemptive emergency disaster declaration for Talkeetna ahead of expected flooding, allowing officials to seek state and federal funding for cleanup, property damage and future flood mitigation.
• Borough officials said emergency repairs along the Susitna River are temporary. They hope to use disaster funding to help secure millions of dollars for a long-term flood management plan and voluntary property buyouts.
• While erosion along the river is a recurring problem requiring major investment, borough officials said it does not threaten Talkeetna's existence or require relocating the community.
• Short on time but need the local news scoop? Get free weekly news in your inbox for Mat-Su, from Mat-Su.

PALMER – The Matanuska-Susitna Borough Assembly approved a preemptive emergency disaster declaration for Talkeetna on Tuesday ahead of heavy rains that were expected to push the Susitna River to near flood stage this week.

The declaration allows officials to unlock state and federal funding to help with cleanup, private property losses caused by rising water near Main Street in Talkeetna, and repairs to prevent future flooding, borough officials said during the regular assembly meeting Tuesday.

A flood watch issued Wednesday by the National Weather Service in Anchorage warned of rising creeks, rivers, and streams through Thursday afternoon in Hatcher Pass and the upper Susitna Valley, including Talkeetna. The slow-moving weather system was expected to dump up to 2.5 inches of rain on the region, according to the watch statement. Borough officials closed the Talkeetna River campground until further notice.

The declaration was approved unanimously during the meeting Tuesday and expires in late January.

The disaster declaration for Talkeetna is the third the borough has issued since 2023, but the first approved before flooding begins. 

Recent and ongoing repairs and flood prevention work have focused on shoring up a rock barrier along the riverbank known as a revetment, Borough Public Works Director Tom Adams told the Assembly. Such projects typically cost about $1 million and involve placing large rocks, known as riprap, into the river and along the shoreline, he said.

“I mean literally, we stood out there and tossed rock in the river, and you don’t know where it’s at,” he said. “You’re hoping that you're getting the benefit out of it. You toss enough rock in there, and sooner or later you start coming out of the water. But, you know, that's all that we can do with what we have right now.”

Any new disaster-related state funding could also be used to create a long-term borough plan to address flooding along a miles-long stretch of riverfront, Brown said.

The borough can receive nearly $4 million in federal disaster funding to create such a plan and offer buyouts to Talkeetna residents whose property is disappearing into the river. To access the money, however, it needs nearly $1 million in local matching funds provided by the state or the borough, according to a disaster declaration memo. Special taxes paid by Talkeetna residents can cover only about $100,000 of that amount, Brown said, so officials are hoping to use state disaster funds to make up the difference.

“We are dealing with the near-term damage and repairs, which are very short-term and temporary in nature. We're looking at buyouts for properties along the riverbank that are being impacted, and then we're looking at the long-term strategy of how do we actually develop a long-term solution that's tied together and protects probably about a two-mile stretch of river,” he said.

While the flooding is frequent enough to warrant long-term, major repairs, it is not severe enough to trigger the wholesale relocation of the Talkeetna community, like the move by residents in Northwest Alaska, where river flooding triggered by typhoons last year forced widespread evacuations and destroyed entire villages.

“We’re not trying to scare the community of Talkeetna and suggest that this is going to uproot the community and that we’re going to move the community,” Adams said. “There are opportunities to address the situation that we have, and it's going to require the state and the federal government to provide assistance in order to do the work.”

-- Contact Amy Bushatz at contact@matsusentinel.com