Galena, Alaska

I got a phone call from the State of Alaska asking me to go to Galena, Alaska and act as standby medical because of the recent floods in the area. This picture is from the flight out...

The mighty Yukon River

The beginning of the clean up - this is "old town" Galena - right next to the Yukon River. They had to strip the walls down to the studs and get rid of all dry wall and insulation.

The river went across the road - cutting off "old town" Galena from "new town" Galena

This is the clinic in new town - right behind this building was the sewer treatment facility which also got flooded out.

Not a great picture but you can kind of see the ball field was there.

I found it interesting that this wonderful group of people had their homes destroyed by the Yukon River but they had chairs set up to enjoy some time by the river.

One of the houses that was destroyed...

The deck was completely torn off the house...

A house where they had started to clean up - by the time I left the pile had doubled. The city and state were trying to keep up runs to the dump and the incinerator but there was a lot to deal with.

Boat got pushed into the shed...

Water line for a house in new town - this group of houses were right along a creek that flooded.

My partner on the Alaska Respond team handing out water - also a local mental health care provider. Mostly we checked on people and visited with them.

One of their two ambulances

Loading a barge Yukon River style...
I'm very thankful that I had this opportunity to meet both the people of Galena and also the responders from the state (and a few of the FEMA folks). My prayers go out to the community of Galena - I truly hope that they will recover and continue to be a strong community...