Ice jams backing up the Tanana River in the Interior this week flooded an area near Manley Hot Springs, forcing the evacuation of at least six people and leaving 21 sled dogs stranded on a barge, according to Alaska State Troopers.

There were no reported injuries, although five men were plucked from an island after wading through frigid waist-deep water to reach a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter, and a woman from another camp was forced to leave her dogs behind during her rescue, troopers spokeswoman Beth Ipsen said.

On Friday, the National Weather Service extended a flood warning on the Tanana from the mouth of the Tolovana River to Manley Landing to 5 p.m. today, while airborne crews assessed the extent of the flooding, which appeared likely to subside locally. But more is probably on the way across the state. The warning does not include Manley Hot Springs itself.

"We're not past the peak yet," said Larry Rundquist, a hydrologist with the National Weather Service's River Forecast Center. "I think we do have flooding yet to come. During the next two weeks probably is when the worst activity will be occurring."

A LONG COLD WADE

Early Thursday morning, five employees of the Old Minto Family Recovery Camp, a rehabilitation center run by the Tanana Chiefs Conference, reported being stranded at one of the facility's cabins on an island about 30 miles downstream from Nenana, Ipsen said.

Walter Flitt, 58, Charlie Titus Jr., 60, Greg Alexander, 50, Dana Pictou, 57, all of Fairbanks, and Donald Charlie, 50, of Nenana, were stuck when three-foot-deep water crept up to their cabin, which was located on some of the highest ground on the island, troopers said.

"At 1 a.m. it didn't crest the bank, then it was up to the building at 3 a.m.," said Charlie, the facility manager. "It raised up that fast in about two hours' time. It fluctuated-- it went up, then went back down."

Heavy ice cut off boat access, so Fort Wainwright's Military Assistance to Safety and Traffic unit deployed a Black Hawk helicopter to the scene. But a tower near the buildings prevented the chopper from getting close, Charlie said.

The men didn't have waders and had to walk some 75 feet through ice-cold, waist-deep water to reach the helicopter. One, Pictou, had wanted to buy hip waders before going but his wife, Lorraine Landers, told him they didn't have the money.

"I'm never going to get out of the dog house," she said Friday night.

Victor Joseph, health director for the Tanana Chiefs, said the facility appeared to have suffered damage and his organization was planning to assess it Monday. There were no patients at the camp because it normally shuts down as a precaution during break-up, he said. The employees were there preparing for the reopening.

"This is the first time it's flooded that bad in the area for some time," Joseph said. "It was a dangerous situation. They handled it really well."

MORE FLOODING AHEAD

A second stranding took place early Friday morning, when Nenana resident Douglas Bowers, 61, reported that his wife, Rebecca Sather-Bowers, 48, was stuck on a barge on the Tolovana River near its confluence with the Tanana. She had 21 sled dogs in tow after an ice jam on the Tanana backed up water on the Tolovana and forced her out of the couple's cabin, Ipsen said.

She'd talked to troopers at about 4 a.m. and said she and the dogs should be all right, but four hours later her husband called back to report she had tried to call him but her cell phone went dead.

A Black Hawk helicopter from Fort Wainwright was again deployed and picked up Sather-Bowers uninjured, Ipsen said.

"We haven't done anything with the dogs," she said. "I doubt if they (could get) 21 dogs on that Black Hawk helicopter. It's probably up to her to find transportation for the dogs, unfortunately."

Sather-Bowers could not be reached Friday.

Rundquist, the hydrologist, said the localized flooding probably will dissipate soon, though a few structures in the Manley area were still threatened.

Two crews of forecasters and state Department of Military and Veterans Affairs personnel are flying the lengths of the Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers-- both prone to flooding this time of year -- looking for ice dams and danger, he said.

Using that data, the service has been broadcasting warnings on VHF radio to alert residents of potential danger, and stopping in villages to talk in person about what's coming down the river, he said.

The ice jams waterways every spring when drifting ice flows downriver and hits solid ice still on the surface, and this year seems to be on track to have an average amount of flooding as a result, Rundquist said.

"It's breakup all over the state, so it's kind of a precarious time," Ipsen said. "We have situations like this going on every year. People need to be careful."