Koyukuk News

Gov. Sean Parnell is seeking a federal disaster declaration following spring flooding on the Yukon River and tributaries.

Josephine Malemute looks through family photographs soaked by the flooding of the Yukon River in Galena, AK.

Parnell says in a release that the disaster has left 194 homes uninhabitable. He's seeking a federal designation for the Alaska Gateway, Yukon-Flats, Yukon Koyukuk, Lower Yukon and Copper River Regional educational attendance areas.

Sean Parnell has issued a state disaster declaration for a town hit by major flooding and other communities affected by spring flooding.

The U.S. Coast Guard is expected to wrap up its inquiry today into what went wrong when the Shell drill rig Kulluk broke free of its towline and ran aground in late December.

Floodwaters are subsiding at Galena, after an ice jam on the Yukon River broke up last night.

Eds: APNewsNow. Corrects to ice jam downriver of flooded community; Will be expanded; With AP Photos.

A colossal river ice jam that caused major flooding in a remote Alaska town was starting to churn Wednesday as water finally chewed ice chunks away from the stubborn, frozen mass after most of the residents were forced to flee from the rising water.

The Yukon river is flooding in Galena as an ice jam at a notorious bend called Bishop's Rock is keeping water high near Galena.