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Nearly six weeks after a massive ice jam and flooding inundated the Yukon River town of Eagle, this tiny Alaskan community is anxiously waiting to rebuild before the notoriously cold winter arrives

For 13 families, a number of them native Alaskans whose homes were crushed by huge ice floes, the work is getting a jumpstart through the efforts of Samaritan’s Purse.

Materials and volunteers are arriving this week to work through the summer to help rebuild their homes that were destroyed or badly damaged by the ice and water.

Our teams will be working alongside a local church partner, Eagle Bible Chapel, whose congregation includes several families that lost their dwellings to the cold floodwaters.

“Right now, people are just hurting and upset at what happened,” pastor Terry DePue said as he stood on the banks of the now receded Yukon River and surveyed the strewn cars, houses, and belongings still scattered along the banks. “They’re really at their wit’s end.”

Samaritan’s Purse President Franklin Graham visited Eagle this week to survey the damage and spoke briefly at Eagle Bible Church.

“We’re here to work in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,” Graham told church members who gathered to listen. “We want to share the hope of the Gospel with those who have lost so much.”

DePue’s church has participated in Operation Christmas Child for a number of years, sending their shoe box gifts up river to Fairbanks.

“We immediately thought of Samaritan’s Purse when the flood hit,” DePue said. “We began praying about it, and some members of our church even contacted them. We’re so thankful that you’ve come to help.”

The Yukon rose to more than 37 feet above flood stage after the combination of a severe winter and early spring thaw sent the massive ice floes crashing into town. Nearly every riverfront building, including the town clinic, was crushed. The flood hit at night, sending residents scurrying for their lives.

“One of the couples in our church saw the surge coming, and ran out to get in their van,” DePue said, standing beside its twisted remains. “The water came in so fast, though, that they had to crawl on top the van and wait for a canoe to come in and rescue them.”

A number of the small homes that Samaritan’s Purse will help construct will be relocated to a new site on higher ground. DePue sees it a great opportunity to share the love of Jesus Christ to people who have lost everything.

“We’re looking forward to seeing what great things God can do in a small community like Eagle,” he said.

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