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Wildfires in Talkneeta - Princess Land Cruise


POF1234
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Anyone on the Princess Land Cruise that goes for 2 nights to Talkneeta > I just saw that they have ordered an evacuation near the town.  I sail in 2 weeks - so will be there in 3, so maybe not to worry.  Any experiences to share > 

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The Parks highway is closed at Mile 71 until further notice. To get to Talkeetna one has to fly in or go north on the Glenn Highway to Glennallen then go north to the Denaili HIghway and cross over to the Parks Highway turn south and enter Talkeetna from the north. The railroad is not operating through that area north of Willow either. Largest fire is around miles 85 to 91, called the "McKinley fire". Another is a few miles west of Willow, at mile 70, called the "Deshka Landing" fire. The strong north wind which caused these fires has now let up so things might get better, but no rain in sight. They couldn't use helicopters yesterday to fight the fires due to the turbulent north wind. Hot shot crews from the lower 48 are currently moving into the Willow area.     https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/2019/08/18/new-evacuations-ordered-as-wind-stokes-willow-area-wildfires/

Edited by kennicott
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Latest.--------- https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/weather/2019/08/23/this-summer-is-on-track-to-be-the-driest-on-record-for-southcentral-alaska/

 

Still hot and very dry in Alaska. North of the Alaska Range though, over recent weeks we have had a lot of rain, remarkable and very strange weather patterns. For visitors, my guess is that there should be no problem on the Parks Highway, now, getting to Talkeetna. But we certainly can use a lot of precipitation in Southcentral Alaska. Been the hottest season ever, by far, as best as I can recall for Alaska and I was born and raised here. Getting close to September so it is starting to get chilly at night here in the Wrangell Mountains, where I am now, so I fire up the wood stove in the morn. We also have a nice cabin on Crystal Lake which is about two miles west of Willow near Mile 70 of the Parks Highway. I'm not there but my wife is at the lake. She says there is no problem except for power outages from time to time. I have tried to encourage her to go back to our home in Anchorage for a while but she says no way, the smoke in Anchorage is a lot worse than at the lake. The ADNs is keeping a close watch on these events--for obvious reasons.

 

Here in the Wrangell Mountains near McCarthy and the Kennicott River it is so dry that it makes me very nervous. My entire place could be gone in minutes, a little wind and a spark could turn everything into an inferno ( like what happened north of Willow). I've got a pretty good sized wilderness spread too, 350 acres. I'm surrounded by white spruce, black spruce, quite a few aspens and cottonwoods with patches of birch. Makes one humble to realize how vulnerable we are.

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My TA contacted Princess a few days ago about this as we are flying into Anchorage on Monday (26th) and will be going to McKinley, Denali and then train to Whittier on the 31st.  Princess told my agent that any changes to our itinerary would be given to us at the lodge.  This was the official statement they provided:

 

Update: Alaska Landslides and Fires
Please be advised that Alaska is currently experiencing rock slides and fires in and around the areas of various Princess tours. As a result, the rock slides have affected many Princess rail service operations and three fires have caused a number of road closures.

As the safety and security of our guests is our highest priority, our Alaska team is diligently working to accommodate guests, mobilize motorcoaches and review itineraries in hopes to impact the guests as little as possible.

We are continuing to monitor the situation and will provide updates as they become available.

 

 

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