Seward has been hit the hardest.
"I'll just send a bill to God for lost revenue," said Sue Lang, a Seward business owner whose bed and breakfast was cut off from the main town Wednesday morning when a cascade of water from a usually calm waterfall formed a gushing river over the one road to her house and business.
The train to Seward, normally a popular tourist draw, has also been stopped in its tracks. Heavy rains caused a rock slide near a narrow tunnel at the railroad's Mile 11, just north of Seward. The Alaska Railroad is now busing tourists the 125 miles from Anchorage to Seward. The company said it would be doing that until at least Friday, maybe longer. The extent of the damage was still being assessed Wednesday.
The National Weather Service reports that 2.35 inches of rain fell on Seward from Tuesday to Wednesday evening. To put that in perspective, that's the city's average rainfall for all of July, according to the Weather Channel's Web site.
Anchorage during that same soggy time frame got just .45 inches.
Floods in Seward, which is barely above sea level, are common, residents say. Lang recalled a particularly bad one in October 2006 that also cut her off from her bed and breakfast at Lowell Point.
Any heavy rains usually swell the mouths of the town's three big rivers, but it's the Resurrection River that seems to be getting a lot of the runoff this time, said city clerk Jean Lewis. The river is at its third highest crest at the Exit Glacier bridge since 1995, said National Weather Service meteorologist Andy Brown.
Seward and the rest of the southern part of the Kenai Peninsula are expected to get as much as another inch of rain today, he said.
State transportation workers are closely watching highways and bridges in case any closures are necessary, said Jack Fullerton, chief of maintenance and operations for the Alaska Department of Transportation's central region.
"It's definitely saturated, so if we get a whole lot more rain we could see some damage," Lewis said.
Some low-lying neighborhoods are already starting to see potential damage, such as around Salmon Creek and in the old Exit Glacier subdivision, she said.
The Red Cross has opened the Seward Middle School for emergency shelter for residents who may be forced out of their homes. The shelter is set up for as many as 50 people, according to a Red Cross statement.
The Seward airport, a small facility designed for small planes, had one of its runways under 3 feet of water Wednesday at one section. State transportation workers are preparing for damage repairs once the water dissipates, Fullerton said.
Elsewhere on the Peninsula, the Exit Glacier area of Kenai Fjords National Park closed Wednesday because of a washed-out road, the National Park Service said. And Alaska State Troopers are warning any backcountry hikers to beware of rushing rivers and streams.
Lang said she's tired of the rain. It's been nonstop since July 19, she said. While city officials couldn't say when the road out to her home at Lowell Point would open again, she thinks she'll be fine. She's got access to potable water, plenty of propane, and there's still power.
"It happens when you live in Alaska and Mother Nature decides she doesn't like you," she said.
City officials are optimistic that things will clear up by the time the city gets another kind of surge in about 10 days -- all the local tourists from Anchorage and Mat-Su who descend on the town for its annual Silver Salmon Derby on Aug. 8.
Ron Long, Kenai Peninsula Borough Assemblyman and vice president of the Seward Chamber of Commerce, said, "We've got a few days left and this whole bay is so dynamic and whatever is washing down the streams now will be washed out and be gone by then."
Find Megan Holland online at adn.com/contact/mholland or call 257-4343.
For the latest information on Alaska state roads, go to http://511.alaska.gov
Travelers scheduled to ride the train to Seward can call the Alaska Railroad for more information at 265-2494 or 800-544-0552.
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