Matanuska River receding following levee breach in Butte
The water impacted several homes and business and came within feet of the roadway.
What you need to know:
- Floodwaters were receding late Saturday after the Matanuska River broke through a levee near Maud Road in Butte earlier in the day, flooding areas along two miles of the Old Glenn Highway and affecting nearby homes and businesses.
- Utility crews were working to stabilize power lines Saturday, and state officials were monitoring the roadway.
- No plan to repair the levee was in place yet as of late Saturday, borough officials said.
BUTTE — Flooding along the highway in Butte on Saturday was receding late Saturday after the Matanuska River broke through a levee at Maud Road in the early morning, leaving several homes or businesses underwater.
As of late Saturday, borough officials said no plan had yet been developed to address the broken levee. The flooding extended from mile 13 to 15 on the Old Glenn Highway.
The water came within feet of the highway but was receding by Saturday evening, according to officials with the state Department of Transportation. It was not expected to affect the roadway, they said.
No official count of impacted structures was immediately available, said borough spokesman Stefan Hinman. The American Red Cross was preparing a shelter Saturday afternoon in case it was needed, but it had not been activated, he said.
Crews with Matanuska Electric Association were working to stabilize power lines located in the flooded right-of-way. While service interruptions were not expected, about 400 customers on Maud Road could experience an outage if conditions worsened, utility officials said in a Facebook post.
Saturday’s flooding followed several days of warm weather and increased water flow down the river, which has its headwaters near the Matanuska Glacier.
The river peaked at 24,400 cubic feet per second on Thursday but had fallen to 21,200 by Saturday evening, according to the National Weather Service.
The flooding is affecting a stretch of land along the Matanuska River near Palmer that has long faced erosion from the powerful current.
In 2021, six riverfront homes in Butte were demolished under a federal buyout program aimed at preventing structures from falling into the river. Most recently, unseasonable flooding in December along the same section was caused by ice dams, officials said at the time.
-- Contact Amy Bushatz at contact@matsusentinel.com
