Alaska storm rips homes off foundations
FAIRBANKS, Alaska — Communities along this state’s western coast faced widespread flooding Saturday as a powerful storm — the remnants of Typhoon Merbok — roared across the Bering Sea, with wind gusts tearing the siding off buildings and a storm surge pulling homes from their foundations.
Rick Thoman, a climate specialist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, said it could be one of the worst storms in recent history.
“It’s a historic-level storm,” Thoman said. “In 10 years, people will be referring to the September 2022 storm as a benchmark storm.”
The storm’s effects were felt across hundreds of miles of coastline as it raked the state from south to north. In Nome, raging waters pushed into six streets, including part of Front Street, near where mushers finish the Iditarod sled dog race. In Chevak, about 200 miles south, images showed sheds floating in tumbling waves next to sunken boats.
In Golovin, about 70 miles east of Nome, Dean Peterson said water had jumped the 20-foot berm that protects the community of 170 people, rushing through the lower-lying areas, pulling three homes from their foundations and destroying another.
People in the community scrambled to rescue an older adult from his home, and many evacuated to take shelter in the school, which itself was not fully protected.
“The school is completely surrounded by water,” Peterson said. He said he did not know of any injuries.
Nome Mayor John Handeland said Saturday morning that there were no reports of injuries in his community but that the storm surge flooded several roads, pushing driftwood and debris into town.
“And the tide still seems to be going up,” he said. Forecasters expected water levels to peak in Nome on Saturday afternoon.
Forecasters said the storm’s size and strength made it one of the most powerful systems to move through the Bering Sea area in decades, with waves north of the Aleutian Islands peaking at 50 feet high Friday. Many communities experienced wind gusts that were close to hurricane strength.
Typhoon Merbok formed farther east in the Pacific Ocean than where such storms typically appear. Water temperatures are unusually warm this year, so the storm “was able to spin up,” Thoman said.
Emergency responders from local, state, federal and tribal agencies were assessing the situation and preparing to deploy. The region includes many communities that have small populations, a few hundred people or fewer, and that are not connected by roads, making a broad response challenging.
The airplane runways used to transport goods to individual communities also posed logistical issues for response efforts; photos showed that some of them appeared to be covered in water Saturday.
That morning, Gov. Mike Dunleavy said on Facebook that he had verbally declared a disaster for the communities hit by the storm. He added that the state emergency operations center had not received any reports of injuries. The Alaska State Troopers said they were prepared to assist with search and rescue efforts if necessary.