Alaska Coast Survives 'Blizzicane'

November 11th 7:51 pm | Carey Restino    

It was compared to a Category III hurricane, stretched across an area that would have spanned from Mexico to Washington State and packed a one-two punch of destructive winds followed by a high storm surge, but for the most part, Western Alaska has reportedly weathered the storm with little damage.

That's not to say that damage didn't occur. As of press time, Point Hope was reportedly had flooding and was still without power. Impacts to other communities in low-lying areas, such as Kivalina, are yet unreported. While Kotzebue, which was buffered by sea ice, weathered the high winds and high seas well, other communities reported no sea ice to protect their ocean fronts from the impact of a storm surge that threatened to top seawalls. Water levels were expected to remain high through Thursday, the National Weather Service warned.

As winds started to blow on Tuesday, Joe Casados, who works for the city of Point Hope, said he had clocked winds topping 50 miles per hour. Later reports from weather buoys showed winds reaching 80 miles per hour in the area.

Point Hope Mayor Steve Oomittuk said the community was prepared, but concerned. The plan going into the storm was for residents of the community of more than 700 people at sticking out into the Chukchi Sea to shelter in place until they needed to evacuate. The village school, which is built 10-12 feet above ground, was the designated shelter if people needed to leave their homes. But beyond that, the residents had few options.

"We've been fighting for years to get an evacuation route," said Oomittuk. "We have a road that goes six miles and reaches 44 feet above sea level, but we've got no buildings or shelter there."

Still, reports from Point Hope residents as the storm progressed were upbeat. Genny Lyda,, who works at the community's health clinic, reported Wednesday morning that power was out, and people were moving to the school where there was a generator to keep warm. She said while many in the community were concerned about the storm, they were prepared.

Oomittuk said the risk in his area was compounded by the lack of sea ice.

"We have open water and no sign of ice," he said. "When we have ice, you can see the ice moving, but it doesn't generate that big of a swell to do much damage."

Emergency agencies across western Alaska met with small communities like Point Hope via phone on Tuesday and Wednesday when possible, but the general plan across the state was to allow the communities to choose whether to try to evacuate or to shelter in place, said Bryan Fisher, chief of operations for the Alaska Division of Homeland Security.

"Our priority is to support these local communities with whatever they need," Fisher said. "Once the damage is assessed, we will provide the resources necessary to respond to the event."

Fisher said communities in the area are well aware of the risk of fall storms like this week's weather event.

"We are preparing to mobilize our state response teams at this time and anticipating that we will send them out after the storm passes and provide on-the-ground support," Fisher said.

As Kivalina, another community that has suffered serious flooding and erosion from winter storms in the past, braced for the storm, Colleen Swan, tribal administrator with the village said the plan was to shelter in place. If the waters rose above the town's seawall, people would go to the school, she said.

"Our window of opportunity to evacuate (from the town) has closed," Swan said.

Alaska State Trooper Sgt. Duane Stone of Kotzebue said late Tuesday night that while these low-lying communities faced some danger, the plans made were made by people who knew what they were doing.

"These are good plans put together by wise people," Stone said. "These people have been up here for thousands of years. They know what to do."

 

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