Floodwaters pushed higher in a remote Alaska town Wednesday, lifting homes off foundations and threatening to breach a dike protecting the airport, virtually the only dry spot left, AP reported. Responders said most residents of Galena were evacuated after a 30-mile (48-kilometer) ice jam on the Yukon River caused rapid flooding in the community of almost 500. Evacuee Shane Edwin described the scene as "a whole bunch of chaos." "The roads are all gone," he said. "The houses are flipped over. It's just trashed. I couldn't grab anything, not even my ID. The water came so fast." National Weather Service hydrologist Ed Plumb flew over the river Wednesday and said the ice jam remains firmly in place, despite warm temperatures. National Weather Service meteorologist Christopher Cox said 90 percent of the community's roads were flooded, and many buildings had 7 feet (2.1 meters) of water in them. Some of the people who were displaced said they escaped in rafts battered by ice chunks and floating debris.
