Already grieving the recent death of his wife, Betty, the 78-year-old longtime resident at Mile 63 of the Glenn Highway was reportedly staying with a cousin Friday as neighbors loaded the last of his windows, doors, wood-burning stove and faded Jeep pickup for safekeeping nearby.
"I have pneumonia and shouldn't even be out here," said Larry Davis, Grace Bible Church pastor, as he and another neighbor salvaged what they could for Blubaugh. "Forrest asked me 'Why is God doing this to me?' and I just told him that God has his reasons for allowing these things to happen. God can either speak to you like a butterfly landing on a petal or he can hit you with a two-by-four if you're not paying attention. This is the two-by-four for Forrest."
The Matanuska is swollen with recent rains, and the marauding river has launched another erosive assault on properties along its banks. Some years the assault has come downstream, at communities like Butte, near Palmer. Sometimes, like this week, it's upstream at places like Sutton.
Davis estimated there are about 10 Sutton properties within a two-mile stretch along the Matanuska River that are in danger of being washed down the river. The borough said Friday that 20 buildings lie between the Glenn Highway and the Matanuska River, some of them at risk.
Some of those property owners were scrambling this week to figure out what to do if the river grabs more of their land and washes it away.
Davis and others working to hold off the river on Friday expressed anger and frustration over the lack of attention they believe Mat-Su Borough and state officials are giving their crisis.
"It's a crying shame no one is here from the state, and they've known this was washing out three or four weeks ago," Davis said. Part of the reason he wants to save the house is he thinks it used to be a church. "With or without them, we're going to see if we can move this house, but we have to wait until the water goes down."
Mat-Su Borough officials sent out a statement Friday morning to reassure residents that emergency services, code compliance, public works and planning department personnel are monitoring the erosion and coordinating efforts with the Sutton Community Council. Council president George Rauscher could not be reached for comment Friday.
Davis was joined by two dozen volunteers with Eagle Crest Ministries this week to help move Blubaugh's belongings out of his house, the borough said.
It all started Monday, when Blubaugh's daughter called the borough about her father's home.
A woodshed had already slipped into the river. The Samaritans managed to save some of Blumbaugh's chopped wood and, on Wednesday, his furniture, the borough said.
At one point the Matanuska River was carving out three feet a day from the riverbanks at Blubaugh's place, the borough said.
Davis, fellow river resident Mike Pearson, and Blubaugh's next-door neighbor Sonny "Red" Johnston said they could see this disaster coming for years after the state removed several finger-like dikes a decade ago. The dikes had been installed to prevent the current scenario, but were taken out after Blubaugh and another neighbor, Ed Musial, complained about them being an eyesore, Johnston said.
State Department of Transportation spokesman Rick Feller said the dikes aren't the issue.
"The course the river is going to take ... goes far beyond the dynamics of those dikes we built, as evidenced all the way up the Glenn Highway where the river is changing course all the time," Feller said.
Johnston, a father of five who built his two-story, four-bedroom home 17 years ago on property that seemed a safe distance from the river then, said he has lost about 55 feet of land to the river in the last five years.
"It used to take 20 minutes to walk from the house to the edge of the river," he said as he and his oldest son gathered up two-by-fours in case they lose the house and are forced to build a new one.
Before that happens, though, he will attempt to move the house to property he owns in Chickaloon, he said, adding that the downside of that would be losing the commercial property he has now, which allows him to run his large salvage yard -- his main source of work.
"I've got beams ready and equipment and a plan for that," he said. "In the meantime, I'm selling off as much as I can through Craigslist and word-of-mouth."
Farther south, in the Butte area, the Maud Road rock embankment also is eroding, according to borough officials. The Butte Fire Department has been contacting residents to alert them to the erosion, and Public Works personnel are keeping a close eye on it, the borough said.
In 2007, the borough lined up $500,000 in state and federal funds to buy out three properties near Sutton, but Davis and Johnston said the homes on those properties weren't in as much danger from the river as Blubaugh's and others closer to the bank.
The borough said a $1 million mapping study is nearly complete that pinpoints erosion risk areas along the river. The intent is to better inform property owners and buyers about the risks the river poses.
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