As of May 5, the Kuskokwim River ice in front of Bethel has officially broken up. But roughly 90 miles up the Kuskokwim River at Kalskag, a flood warning remains in place until the evening of May 7 due to an ice jam that has sent water over the road connecting the lower and upper sections of the community.
On May 5, the flood warning prompted schools in Kalskag to release early, and some children needed to travel by boat over inundated sections of the road. The following day, the National Weather Service reported that water had receded about half a foot, but that Lower Kalskag and Upper Kalskag were still cut off from each other.
The flooding has also hampered access to the airport and canceled classes at George Morgan Sr. High School, which is located on the same connector road and was seen surrounded by water on the afternoon of May 6.
The impacts on students in Kalskag are also being felt across middle Kuskokwim communities. Dozens of students from Kalskag are reportedly unable to attend the Kuspuk School District’s long-running Academic Decathlon around 30 miles upriver in Aniak.
Erich Kuball, a retired educator with the district, manages the four-day event that brings students from schools along the middle river and includes academic competitions, engineering challenges, sports events, dancing, and plenty of food.
"We shut school down at all of the schools and everybody flies here, staff and kids," Kuball said.
Kuball said that the absence of students from the largest school in the district due to the flooding has dampened the festivities.
"We've had this event for, can't tell you how many years, and it's affecting us majorly because that's our largest school," Kuball said. "So normally we were expecting about 120 kids, and now we might get 70."
Kuball said that he’s still optimistic that some Kalskag students will make it up for the decathlon once the ice jam finally pushes down into the lower river.
"I did read some stuff on Facebook that some parents were thinking about boating kids up. We're just kind of playing it by ear. If they show up we'll include them," Kuball said.
The lower river
Downriver from Kalskag, the Kuskokwim remains in varying states of decay, according to Johnse Ostman, a hydrologist with the Alaska–Pacific River Forecast Center.
"The river really is in this intermittent state of shifting, separating, open water, shattered and scattered ice, and completely open in some places for 5 to 10 mile reaches," Ostman said on May 5.
Ostman said that there is still some ice that will need to shift and melt between Tuluksak and Akiak, but that the Kuskokwim downriver of Akiak is almost completely open through both the Kuskokuak Slough and Akiachak side channels to below Schwalbe Island.
In Bethel and further downriver, Ostman said that open water was observed nearly bank to bank between Oscarville and Napaskiak, and that there is plenty of open water further downriver toward Napakiak.
"And then the Johnson River just looks awful, super rotten looking. There's either open holes that weren't there [May 4], or it's, like, meltwater sitting on top of grounded ice that looks like open holes," Ostman said. "But it's very, very different than it was [May 4], so, like, really deteriorating between Schwalbe Island and Johnson River.
Catch daily Kuskokwim breakup updates from the River Watch team by listening to Coffee at KYUK at 8:40 a.m. Monday through Friday by tuning into 640 AM or visiting KYUK.org.
To share observations or concerns with the Alaska-Pacific River Forecast Center, email aprfc@noaa.gov or call 800-847-1739. Observations can also be shared through the Fresh Eyes on Ice Facebook group.
For emergency preparedness information, visit the State Emergency Operations Center website at ready.alaska.gov or call 907-428-7100.
