As with the extremes in winter, so go the extremes in spring. When there’s been plenty of snow in the winter, plenty of water follows in the spring. Spring of 1967 came with some serious flooding in Fairbanks, Alaska. The state had some warning and sent National Guard soldiers to block off the town to keep looting down and to try to contain the damage. The problem: My dad was working at the air force base until after the shutdown and my mom was home with a newborn and an impending flood on the way.
Mom had been at church visiting with some ladies who expressed concern over whether Doug (dad) could get home before the shutdown. Gloria (mom) knew he would be coming home after the shutdown. She wasn’t too worried. She told them, “if there is a way in town after the shutdown, Doug will find it.”
The Guard did a great job of shutting down all the streets and alleys. When Doug got to the edge of town and was warned away by the guards at two or three entrances, he drove around some dirt roads and got to a vantage point where he could see all possible entry points for the town. That’s when he saw the train.
Doug watched as the train came across the bridge to enter town. Once the train was out of the way, he knew what to do. He found a point where the tracks crossed a road just outside of town. He got his Jeep CJ5 stradled up on the tracks and off he went. Clackety, clack! He rode the tracks to the bridge and crossed the railroad bridge into town.
He got home safely and they went to bed knowing that flood waters would come, but not knowing how high they might go. They knew there was an alert system in town ready and soldiers all around to help as needed. So, they went to bed in peace. Later that night, Doug was awakened by a strange noise coming from the garage area. So, he got up and meandered through the kitchen to the garage door. He realized as he got close to it, that he was hearing the washing machine running. He wondered to himself, “why is Gloria washing something in the middle of the night?”
He was still groggy and half asleep as he opened the door to enter the garage from the kitchen and saw the washing machine floating across the garage. It was now tethered in place only by the electric cord. He stepped down into the garage and hit three feet of icy cold water! He was instantly, fully awake. Realizing he could be electrocuted, he jumped back up out of the water and was able to crawl across a ledge (out of the water) to the electrical box and shut down the power to the house.
The water didn’t get much higher in their area. They weren’t physically harmed and insurance and disaster aid replaced most of the things they lost in the garage. It was just another day in the Alaska adventure for Doug and Gloria.
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