K-Beach, Alaska residents not happy with response

Residents from 120 flood-impacted homes crowded into the Kenai Borough Assembly Chambers Wednesday to listen to state and borough personnel explain that nothing immediate can be done to alleviate flooding and that there is no guarantee that the state will declare the Kalifornsky Beach area a disaster. One person after another lined up to say that the borough should divert the water through whatever means possible and do it fast before the freeze-up worsens the damage to their homes, septic systems and drinking water wells. “There is no quick fix here,” Borough Mayor Mike Navarre said, “We don’t do water diversion.” Kerry Siefert, from the Alaska Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, said that the groundwater flooding that occurred prior to heavy rain event on Oct. 27 and 28 doesn’t count as a disaster, however the flooding afterward might.