Flood waters receding after storm batters western Alaska

Floodwaters were receding in parts of western Alaska battered by the worst storm in a half-century, leaving behind debris flung by powerful Bering Sea waves into beaches and seaside communities.

The remnants of Typhoon Merbok were weakening Sunday as the storm system moved north from the Bering Strait into the Chukchi Sea on Alaska’s northwest coast, where it still threatens smaller communities, said National Weather Service meteorologist Kaitlyn Lardeo.

“This guy is going to hang out in the Chukchi Sea for the next few days and just rapidly weaken because it’s so stationary,” she said.

Several communities reported homes were knocked off their foundations by the force of the incoming water, often propelled by winds gusting near 70 miles per hour (113 kilometers per hour). One house in Nome floated down a river until it got caught under a bridge.

Many homes were flooded and about 450 residents on the western coast sought refuge in shelters, with more than half of them at a school in Hooper Bay, where they ate processed moose donated by village residents. Others rode out the storm on higher ground outside their communities.

It was a massive storm system — big enough to cover the mainland U.S. from the Pacific Ocean to Nebraska and from Canada to Texas. It influenced weather systems as far away as California, where a rare late-summer storm dropped rain on the northern part of the state, offering a measure of relief to wildfire crews but also complicating fire suppression efforts because of mud and loosened earth.

The storm’s crashing waves caused widespread flooding and damage along 1,000 miles (1,609 kilometers) of the Alaska coastline, Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy said.

There have been no reports of injuries, deaths, or missing people in Alaska, the governor said during a Sunday news conference. A child reported missing Saturday was later found, he said.

Dunleavy said roads are damaged and state officials are assessing potential damage to seawalls, water and sewage systems, airports, and ports. He identified five communities — Hooper Bay, Scammon Bay, Golovin, Newtok, and Nome — as being greatly impacted by a combination of high water, flooding, erosion, and electrical issues in either the towns or their airports.

Emergency management and American Red Cross personnel will deploy to those communities as soon as Monday, while Alaska National Guard members will be sent to Nome, Bethel, and Hooper Bay to assist residents. Red Cross volunteers from the Lower 48 will also conduct needs assessments for food, water, and shelter in other flooded villages.

The storm caused Nome’s highest water level since 1974 — 11.1 feet (3.38 meters) above the normal tide — and other communities may have surpassed levels seen 48 years ago.

“One of the big features of this storm was the wide swath of significant damage,” said Rick Thoman, a climate specialist with the International Arctic Research Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

“So, did it live up to the hype? I would say absolutely,” he said of the storm.