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| Photo Credit: AP. |
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A powerful storm sweeping north through the Bering Strait on Saturday caused widespread flooding in several western Alaska coastal communities, knocking out power and sending residents fleeing for higher ground.
The force of
the water moved some homes off their foundations, and one house in Nome floated
down a river until it got caught at a bridge.
The potent
storm — what remains of Typhoon Merbok — has been influencing weather patterns
as far away as California, where strong winds and a rare late-summer rainstorm
were expected.
In Alaska,
no injuries or deaths were immediately reported, said Jeremy Zidek,
spokesperson for the Alaska Department of Homeland Security and Emergency
Management. Officials had warned some places could see their worst flooding in
50 years and that the high waters could take up to 14 hours to recede.
Gov. Mike
Dunleavy issued a disaster declaration during the day.
The nearly
1,000-mile (1,609-kilometer) storm front has damaged roads and potentially
other infrastructure, Dunleavy said at a Saturday evening news conference.
Officials will evaluate any effects on water and sewer systems, seawalls, fuel
storage areas, airports, and ports.
Federal
Emergency Management Agency representatives were already in Alaska before the
storm, and Dunleavy said they will stay to help assess damage.
“Our goal is
to get the assessments done as soon as possible,” he said. “We’re going to move
as quickly as we can to provide relief, provide recovery, provide the
essentials that people need.”
Among the
hardest hit communities was Golovin, a village of 170 or so residents who
mostly sought shelter at a school or in three buildings on a hillside. Winds in
the village gusted over 60 mph (95 kph) and the water rose 11 feet (3.3 meters)
above the normal high tide line and was expected to rise another 2 feet (60
centimeters) Saturday before cresting.
“Most of the
lower part of the community is all flooded with structures and buildings
inundated,” said Ed Plumb, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in
Fairbanks.
Clarabelle
Lewis, the facility manager for the tribal government, the Chinik Eskimo
Community, was among those who sought refuge on the hill overlooking Golovin.
She and others were riding out the storm in the tribal office after securing
items at their homes from the high winds and helping neighbors do the same.
“The winds were howling; it was noisy,” she
said.
Most
communities experienced wind gusts ranging from 41 mph (66 kph) to 67 mph (108
kph), but Cape Romanzof had peak winds of 91 mph (146 kph), the weather service
said.
Lewis has
never experienced a storm like this in 20 years living in Golovin.
“We’ve had
flooding in the past a few times, but it was never this severe,” she said.
“We’ve never had homes moved from their foundations.”
There were
also reports of flooding in Hooper Bay, St. Michael’s, Unalakleet and
Shaktoolik, where waves crashed over the berm in front of the community, Plumb
said.
In Hooper
Bay, more than 250 people took shelter inside the school, Bethel public radio
station KYUK reported. The village is one of the largest along the coast with
nearly 1,400 residents.
The school’s
vice principal, Brittany Taraba, said three homes were knocked off their
foundations and large parts of the village were flooded.
Residents
are supporting each other, including donating recently caught and processed
moose to feed those sheltering at the school.
“It’s really
amazing to watch this community,” Taraba told KYUK.
Plumb said
the storm would track through the Bering Strait on Saturday and then head into
the Chukchi Sea.
“And then
it’s going to kind of 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 vicinity of the northern Bering Sea through
Saturday night before levels start to subside through Sunday. Rising water
levels farther north, in the Chukchi Sea and Kotzebue Sound areas, were
expected into Sunday.
In Northern
California, wind gusts up to 40 mph (64 kph) were forecast overnight Saturday
and into Sunday morning along coastal areas from Sonoma County down to Santa
Cruz and at higher elevations in the Sierra Nevada, the weather service said.
Winds that
strong can blow down branches and drought-stressed trees and cause power
outages, said weather service meteorologist Ryan Walbrun.
Storms were
expected to start Sunday morning and dump up to 3 inches (7.6 centimeters) of
rain in coastal areas of Sonoma County and a bit less as rains move southward
to the San Francisco area and into the Santa Cruz mountains, Walbrun said.
“It’s a
pretty significant rain for this early in the season,” he said, adding that the
storms are forecast to continue on and off through at least Monday, making
commutes to work wet with slick roads.
In the
Sierra Nevada foothills northeast of the state capital of Sacramento, fire
crews have been fighting what has become the largest wildfire in that state so
far this year. While rain is needed, the winds were a concern for crews
battling the Mosquito Fire, which was 21% contained as of Saturday morning.
“The winds
will definitely cause erratic fire behavior” that could ignite new hot spots
despite the welcome moisture, said Cal Fire spokesman Scott McLean. “The rain
is not going to put out the fire but it will help.”
Gecker
reported from San Francisco.