Carol Neeley Forced To Evacuate Home As Family, Friends & Church Members Tried To Keep Out The Waters

VOLUNTEERS RALLY TO HELP IN FLOOD 

Even The Congregation Of Old Paths Baptist Church Showed Up To Try To Keep Moose Creek Out Of Carol Neeley's Home 

CAROL NEELEY'S HOME SURROUNDED BY WATER (PHOTO, DOT) 

Carol Neeley, who has lived in the Copper Valley almost all her life, has had to move out of her home in downtown Glennallen. 

She talked with the Country Journal on Monday night, May 15th, about her experiences with the Moose Creek Flood of 2023. She was on the phone, speaking from the safety of a neighbor's home up on Terrace Drive, where she had taken refuge.

Despite everything that was happening to her, Carol remained cheerful, if somewhat fatalistic. 

"It's knee high inside the house," Carol reported. "I can't get my mind around it all. I can't even think about coming back to my house. And you can't use the septic system."

•••

Carol is not alone, as she was the first to point out. "The American Legion, and the Catholic Church, the IGA store, the Wells Fargo Bank... they're all affected by this. The water seems to be on the north side of the road, and the road seems to act as a dike. Look how widespread it is! Even the road up to Terrace Drive; they don't recommend cars go through it. The water is undercutting the main highway, too, at different places." 

She thought a moment. "It's not good. Not good at all."

•••

"I've lived here 79 years," said Carol. "We've never had a flood like this before." Of course, Moose Creek did experience a smaller version of the same thing last spring, when it went over its banks in a defiant and threatening manner. But that was only a dress rehearsal for its full performance this month. 

"This year is even worse," Carol reported. "Last year it did not come in our house. This year it did. Last year it was just to the floor joists. It didn't come up to the living area. I think we had more snow this year. We're having warmer winters, with more moisture, like Valdez. We used to get cold ones like Fairbanks."

•••

She was speaking on Monday. Only a few days before, on Saturday night, the waters had begun rising, 

Carol is lucky. She has family in the Copper Valley. They were going to celebrate Mother's Day with her. "Sunday we were supposed to go out to dinner for Mother's Day." 

But her two daughters – Shannon and Sharon – who are as intense and determined as their mom and their late dad, Sy Neeley – didn't quite pull that dinner party together. They were busy doing something else on Sunday.

As Carol commented later, "They were working trying to save the house. All day Sunday they worked on trying to protect the house.The girls and everybody worked 40 hours straight with sandbags, and building dikes." 

It was all hands on deck as family, neighbors and friends pitched in. 

They propped up mattresses on cement blocks to keep the beds out of the water – Carol has five beds in different rooms.

Unable to get to church for services, Carol watched on Facebook that Sunday. 

Meanwhile, the waters kept rising, no matter what anybody did, as more people joined to try to help. This included all the people in her church. 

"Old Paths Church, they cancelled their Sunday night service and brought their whole congregation down to fill sandbags and keep the water away from the house." --Carol Neeley of Glennallen 

Yet the waters were relentless. "One of my freezers, the water just tipped it up and flipped it over. So whatever was in my freezer was exposed and damaged." 

•••

Carol hasn't been back home yet. "There's nothing I can do." 

But she's resigned. "It doesn't make any difference. It's just stuff. I know I'll probably have to pull the carpet and the sheetrock in the walls. Probably have to gut everything out there. I think they took out some boxes of papers."

But... "I'm okay. Nobody was hurt. The governor has declared it an emergency and hopefully the legislature will have some funds available. Insurance companies don't have flood insurance. There's no insurance coverage. If the state has some money to help, that would be great."

•••

Carol is simultaneously grateful for the extraordinary community support and surprised at the suddeness and severe impact of Moose Creek's rampage through Glennallen. "I can't wrap my head around it. But it's okay. We'll get through it all."

There was one thing that she learned, though in the past few days.

"Things change. In the blink of an eye,"  Carol said.