The force of the water blew some houses off their foundations and a house in Nome floated down a river until it was caught on a bridge. The storm is what remains of Hurricane Merbok, a storm that is also affecting weather patterns as far away as California, where strong winds and a rare late-summer storm were expected. In Alaska, there were no reports of injuries or deaths from the storm, said Jeremy Zidek, a spokesman for the Alaska Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management. Officials had warned communities that some areas could see the worst flooding in 50 years and that the water could take up to 14 hours to recede. Gov. Mike Dunleavy on Saturday issued a disaster declaration for the affected communities. Just now, I verbally declared a disaster for the communities affected by the western cost storm. SEOC has received no reports of injuries at this time. We will continue to monitor the storm and update Alaska as much as possible. —@GovDunleavy Among the hardest hit was Golovin, where most of the village’s 170 or so residents either took shelter in the school or in three hillside buildings. Winds in the area were gusting in excess of 95 kilometers per hour and the water level was 3.35 meters above the normal high tide line and was expected to rise another 61 centimeters on Saturday before peaking. “Most of the lower part of the community is all flooded with structures and buildings flooded,” said Ed Plumb, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Fairbanks. Clarabelle Lewis, the director of facilities for the local tribal government, was among those who sought shelter on the hill overlooking Golovin. She and others were riding out the storm at the tribal office after securing items in their homes from the winds and helping their neighbors do the same. “The winds were howling, it was noisy,” he said. Heavy flooding in Golovin this morning. The water is still expected to rise 1-2 feet by this afternoon Our thoughts are with the community. (photos courtesy of C. Lewis) pic.twitter.com/BO63uN8dGL —@NWSFairbanks Lewis has never experienced a storm like this in her 20 years living in Golovin. “We’ve had floods in the past a few times, but never this bad,” he said. “We had never moved houses off their foundations.” There were also reports of flooding in Hooper Bay, St. Michael’s, Unalakleet and Shaktoolik, where waves broke over the rock in front of the community, Plumb said. People walk through flood waters just half a block from the Bering Sea in Nome on Saturday. (Peggy Fagerstrom/The Associated Press) He said the storm will cross the Bering Strait on Saturday and then head into the Chukchi Sea. “And then it will park and weaken just west of Point Hope,” he said of the community on Alaska’s northwest coast. He said there would be high water in the northern Bering Sea region until Saturday night before receding by Sunday. Rising water levels further north in the Chukchi Sea and Kotzebue Sound areas will continue through Sunday. Water from the Bering Sea, pushed by strong winds, rushes into the yard of a home in Nome on Saturday. (Peggy Fagerstrom/The Associated Press)
