Share this:
The Japanese Creek, pictured in June 2021, carries sediment, rocks and debris down from the mountains. The debris can move with violence and speed during surge flood events, threatening Seward, Alaska. Credit: Young Kim for The Hechinger Report
The Hechinger Report is a national nonprofit newsroom that reports on one topic: education. Sign up for our weekly newsletters to get stories like this delivered directly to your inbox.
SEWARD, Alaska — It’s always difficult for Selma Casagranda’s friends to come to her birthday parties.
This story also appeared in Peninsula Clarion
The recent Seward High School graduate was born in September, prime flooding season in her hometown of Seward, Alaska, on the Kenai Peninsula, which juts into the Gulf of Alaska south of Anchorage. Home to around 3,000 people, Seward sits between Resurrection Bay and the Kenai Mountains. A massive 700-square-mile glacial icefield flows out of the mountains, melting off into braided rivers and tributaries before reaching the bay’s shores. An average annual precipitation of 70 inches ensures streams flow swiftly across the landscape, sometimes flooding the only road in and out of town.