High winds cause erosion and flooding in region

A huge storm system pummeled western Alaska from Sunday through Tuesday with high winds and areas of significant flooding.
While a couple of weeks ago strong north winds caused recordbreaking low tides, this week, the opposite occured with high water causing flooding in Shishmaref and in Kotzebue.
The entire region saw very high wind speeds ranging from the highest in Teller with gusts over 74 mph to “lowest” wind speeds in Koyuk, peaking around 40 mph. According to the National Weather Service, sustained winds over 39 mph pose “a high threat to life and property,” while sustained windspeeds above 58 mph pose an “extreme” one.
Beside Teller, other high wind spots were Wales at 70 mph, Gambell at 68 mph, Brevig Mission at 60 mph and Nome at 58 mph.
Shishmaref winds were recorded at 54 mph, Golovin at 48 mph, Shaktoolik at 56 mph, St. Michael at 48 but the weather station only reported intermittent.
White Mountain clocked 46 mph winds, Elim’s intermittent observations recorded 45 mph and Unalakleet had intermittent observations of 48 mph.
Roof metal was flapping loosely on some Nome roof tops; an incomplete building near the Elementary School collapsed and ocean waves crashed onto the seawall, hurling beach sand on the east end of Front Street. The Dept. of Transportation reported that the Nome-Council Highway is impassable at mile 24,w problem spots at mile 16.5 and mile 21.
 According to Rick Thoman, peak ocean water levels at Nome were 6.4 feet above average daily low tide. “This is 4.1 feet lower than the peak during Merbok,” he said.

Regional
In Little Diomede, huge waves rushed through the Bering Strait and crashed onto the rocky seawall there. Frances Ozenna reported that the power went out Monday night and that workers are in the process of restoring connections. Two containers left by a barging company were not placed high enough up the beach and were knocked around by huge ocean waves. Diomeders had no heavy equipment strong enough to pull the containers to higher ground. Roofs have flown off two abandoned homes. Students were released early from school to make it home safely.

Shishmaref
Curtis Ray of Shishmaref said he had “never seen it this bad before.” On Tuesday, the Chukchi Sea hammered the northwest-facing shoreline of Sarichef Island, creeping close to the west end structures and teacher housing.  
Department of Transportation engineer Ulysees Hall worked on the construction of a seawall in Shishmaref, a project that just wrapped up. He reported on Tuesday of major surges that have inundated about 200 feet of shoreline with oceanwater.  “Lots of havoc, erosion and damages along the shorelines,” he texted to the Nugget. “The rock wall holding up fairly well, but anything not protected by revetment is suffering severe erosion. Including a gravesite has eroded.”
Videos documented the water coming up to the dump road, drying racks and other structures inundated with rushing ocean waves.
In Shishmaref, the City Council met Monday and kept a close eye on the storm that night and Tuesday.
On Tuesday morning, Ulysses Hall said that photos showed that the water had reached the top of the seawall. “But it hasn’t harmed the road, it doesn’t seem like,” he said. “It seems like the seawall is kinda doing its job where it’s at.”
A few hours later, the waves got worse.
“The waves are splashing over our seawall right now,” said Molly Snell on Tuesday afternoon in an interview with the Nugget. Videos she posted to Facebook showed waves lapping at Shishmaref’s dump road. “The waves are getting bigger.”
On the other side of the island, the lagoon had flooded as well. Snell said that men in Shishmaref were at the lagoon figuring out how to protect the boats.
“Someone’s boat blew away. Now it’s sinking. We don’t know whose,” said Snell.
Shaktoolik
Shaktoolik has constructed a berm to prevent erosion. The berm did its job but was damaged and washed out. Katie Evan said there was wooden debris by the old village in Shaktoolik, by the first and second bend and by the old fishing plant. “There was a little bit of erosion through half the berm. Berm got eaten a little bit, and a little bit of debris on the old road,” said Evan.
Shaktoolik opened the school for the night as an evacuation center. One person went to the evacuation building but everybody else stayed home. No one was hurt.
“It was a little worrisome. I know everybody lost a couple hours of sleep. But everybody’s doing okay,” said Evan.  
Gloria Andrew posted a photo of Shaktoolik on Facebook. “Front of berm gone; some areas lost about 2 feet,” she captioned it.

Unalakleet
Kyley Katchatag said that Unalakleet had no damage and that everybody was safe. “It’s actually just really windy right now.” Unalakleet peak ocean water level was measured at 11.8 feet above average daily low tide, 1.4 feet lower than the peak during Merbok.

Golovin
As of Tuesday, Kathy Fagerstrom said that no one evacuated in Golovin. “We were actually in no danger,” said Fagerstrom, but added: “It’s still real windy and I’m not sure what the water’s gonna do.”
The winds increased significantly on Sunday afternoon and prevented some people from traveling. People trying to make it home from AFN, were stranded in either Anchorage or Nome. Among them were the Savoonga dancers who performed at AFN last week. They were transiting through Nome on their way home when the winds stopped them. They stayed overnight in Nome at the Mini Convention Center and calls went out to get blankets for the travelers.
Nome Public Schools were closed on Monday and had a two-hour delay on Tuesday. Norton Sound Health Corporation delayed opening until 10 am on Tuesday in both Nome and the villages. The Alaska Court started with a delay, Alaska Waste postponed their trash pickup. Bering Air did not fly on Monday and canceled or delayed flights on Tuesday morning. Alaska Airlines canceled its evening flights for Sunday and Monday but flew as scheduled the morning flights.