The remnants of a massive Pacific hurricane that battered a thousands-mile stretch of Western Alaska broke up Sunday morning, with floodwaters tumbling and communities assessing damage from one of the worst storms on record. “The peak is complete,” National Weather Service meteorologist Kaitlyn Lardeo said Sunday. “It’s a weakening system.” The storm left a trail of debris across coastal Alaska, with flooding, telecommunications outages and damage to buildings and infrastructure such as roads, docks, seawalls and village corridors. As of Sunday afternoon, there were no reports of deaths, serious injuries or missing people, Gov. Mike Dunleavy said. The storm system continued to move north, where it is expected to stall and weaken rapidly in the Chukchi Sea. Storm surge flooding in Kotzebue on Sunday, September 18, 2022. (Photo by Reid Magdanz) The storm is expected to remain in place for the next two days, weather service meteorologist Jonathan Crist said during a video update Sunday. As a result, “water levels in this area will drop more slowly,” he said. “The good news with the system staying in place longer is that we no longer expect widespread or really any impacts in terms of coastal flooding from Point Lay to Wainwright to Utqiaġvik,” he said. “The water is not expected to rise high enough to cause an impact at this time.” [Alaska Community Foundation creates fund to accept donations for storm-ravaged Western Alaska] The weather system is a remnant of Typhoon Merbok, which formed further east in the Pacific Ocean than where such storms usually occur. Parts of Kotzebue were flooded late Saturday and into Sunday morning, with residents of some low-lying areas of the city having fled elsewhere overnight. As of Sunday afternoon, there were no reports of evacuations in Kivalina and Deering, and “no other communities in the Northwest Arctic Borough have reported significant impacts,” said Tessa Baldwin, Director of Public Safety for the Northwest Arctic Borough’s public safety department. . Storm surge flooding in Kotzebue on Sunday, September 18, 2022. (Photo by Reid Magdanz) Further south, water levels dropped throughout Sunday in communities at the mouths of the Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers, Norton Sound and the Seward Peninsula. “They’re past their prime for this event,” Lardeo said. As the worst of the wind and flooding receded, the state’s Emergency Operations Center assessed the damage, gathering reports of damaged infrastructure and property from communities up and down the Bering Sea coast. According to Dunleavy, five communities are known to have suffered “severe damage”: Hooper Bay, Scammon Bay, Nome, Newtok and Golovin. Flooding in Hooper Bay along the Bering Sea coast on Friday. (Photo by Ervin Chayalkun) Flooding in Hooper Bay on Friday. (Photo by Ervin Chayalkun) “We’re going to move as quickly as possible and focus on the communities that are really damaged and really need the help the most,” Dunleavy said. “But all the committees will be reviewed and where there is help that is needed, we will get the help there as soon as possible.” Even the communities that were not worst affected are facing big problems in the coming days. Unalakleet, Elim, Hooper Bay and Golovin are experiencing water issues. Hundreds of people sheltered at the school in Hooper Bay over the weekend, including residents of nearby Kotlik, according to public radio station KYUK. Most of the fishing boats in Chevak are gone, according to reports from KYUK and Alaska Public Media. “There are many implications across the region. We understand there’s damage to homes, there’s damage to infrastructure in many communities, and the recovery process will be widespread,” said Jeremy Zidek, a spokesman for the state Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management. [Whipped by winds from storm, popular Nome restaurant destroyed in a Saturday fire]
Impact on telecommunications
One of the issues facing emergency responders is that telecommunications coverage in some communities was inconsistent throughout Sunday due to infrastructure impacts or loss of local power sources. “Are communications affected? yes,” Zidek said. “Does Power Have Effects? Yes. To what degrees? This is really a changing and evolving situation.” GCI, which provides telephone and Internet service to many of the affected communities, said its headquarters in Anchorage is working with local technicians in Western Alaska to monitor system outages. “Our current estimates indicate that consumer network services are affected in Chevak, Elim, Golovin, Hooper Bay, Newtok, White Mountain, Shaktoolik, Stebbins, St. George, Unalakleet,” said GCI spokeswoman Heather Handyside. “Internet was down for a while but has been restored in Emmonak, Greyling and Kwigillingok.” [Earlier coverage: Worst storm in years batters Western Alaska coast] “Some of the consumer outages are likely due to commercial power outages and flooding affecting residential Internet equipment,” he said, adding that as storm conditions continue to subside, “GCI teams are prioritizing dispatch needs when preparing resources and equipment”.
Infrastructure damaged
As of Sunday afternoon, state officials said they believe all runways at area airports are operational. Several runways were reportedly flooded on Saturday and could not accommodate aircraft. Flooding at Nome Airport on Saturday, September 17, 2022. (photo by Annette Piscoya) Heavy equipment crews were able to clear debris from runways in much of the area Sunday morning, according to Department of Transportation spokeswoman Shannon McCarthy. Some communities saw damage to lights along runways due to flooding, he said. Melanie Bahnke, head of the regional nonprofit Kawerak, based in Nome, said information is still coming in from the 15 Bering Strait communities served in Nome. So far, three houses are believed to have disappeared in Golovin. According to Bahnke, the sanitary road outside Shishmaref used to empty the garbage and buckets of honey “has disappeared”. Other communities reported flooding and residents evacuated to shelters Saturday night. Along the roads outside Nome, people are finding their family cabins and fish camps destroyed or breached. Bahnke said her husband checked out their cabin outside Cape Nome late Saturday. “My chimney is gone, my house is gone. The picnic table and a canoe are gone,” he said. During the night the winds had changed direction and she wasn’t sure if the main structure had made it. “Other people have lost their cabins.” Water levels remain very high in many communities, but have crested everywhere except Point Lay to Utqiagvik where no impacts are expected. The table below shows when we expect the water to drop below the normal high tide line. Winds have also peaked and are calm. #akwx pic.twitter.com/FFx7p3cGjG — NWS Fairbanks (@NWSFairbanks) September 18, 2022 Large stretches of the eastern portion of Nome’s Front Street were cut from the asphalt and severely eroded. Alaska Airlines was able to fly a commercial plane to Nome Sunday morning. According to Alaska Airlines regional vice president Marilyn Romano, the jet service was unable to reach Bethel or Kotzebue. Governor Dunleavy issued a state of disaster declaration on Saturday. Lt. Gen. Torrence Saxe, commander of the Alaska National Guard, said Sunday that all Guardsmen and state defense force members in the western region have been activated. More air support is headed to western Alaska: three Guard helicopters in Nome and one in Bethel, as well as a C-17 and a C-130, both large military cargo planes, on standby. “It is critical to have boots on the ground. So we want to start it today,” Saxe said. He said the goal is to have 10 guards at Hooper Bay, where hundreds of meals are provided to shelter residents, along with guards sent to Bethel and Nome. The governor said the state’s pooling of resources to bring food, water and other basic supplies to the affected communities will begin Monday. He reiterated that the fast approaching “freeze,” expected in western Alaska in a few weeks, means the recovery process should begin and be completed quickly. Brian Fisher, director of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, said state officials, including an emergency manager, will be deployed to Western Alaska on Monday. They will be joined by members of the American Red Cross from the Lower 48 who will fly into the area to begin assessing where food, water and shelter are needed. Bahnke said she was speaking with the congressional delegation Sunday in hopes of getting a federal disaster declaration. “Tribes could do this directly with FEMA, but it requires a 20 percent local match, which is simply not possible,” Bahnke said. He hopes the state will submit the request to federal emergency managers. Although Dunleavy has not yet requested a federal disaster declaration, the state expects to do so in the next couple of days. “We’re going to work with them to do the assessment part,” Fisher said, “and that’s really a backstop, provided the governor’s disaster programs, (which) have been activated since Saturday morning, provide essentially cash advance you do this answer.” “If this is approved by the President, there will be additional financial resources that will be used in the long term,” Fisher said. • • •
