Talkeetna, Alaska, to evacuate; failed dike

[Blue_In_AK]

This from KTUU news:

Residents of Talkeetna are being asked to evacuate the town after its dike system against heavy flooding failed Friday, according to local firefighters.

The evacuation is now voluntary, although an initial order was mandatory.

Talkeetna Fire Department Battalion Chief Johnny Murdoch, the incident commander for flooding in the area, says the Susitna River started backing up to the Talkeetna River, causing the dike to fail.

According to local officials the decision to evacuate Talkeetna was made by Alaska State Troopers, with authorities expecting water to continue rising Friday afternoon.

Students from Talkeetna's elementary school were being bused to the local high school Friday. Traffic was blocked from entering Talkeetna until the evacuation was no longer mandatory, a change made shortly before 2 p.m.

Updates from the Mat-Su Borough's Facebook page have been posted in their entirety below:

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[MuseRider]

1. Hope all are OK.

Spent some time there on vacation. I thought it was a cute place, great location to do a lot of things. Nice people there too.

[Blue_In_AK]

3. We love Talkeetna.

Talkeetna and Homer are little liberal hippie enclaves in this red state.

[AverageJoe90]

2. Sadly, this is likely going to keep happening as time goes on.

Other towns like Shishmareff and Point Hope aren't safe, either. As the planet keeps warming, more of these flooding problems will occur, and I personally have worried for some time that sea level rise may actually be far worse than realized, even if the worst-case scenarios aren't likely to pan out......by 2100, Miami, Charleston, New Orleans, and Galveston could ALL be underwater, possibly. And that's just America.