Breakup of the Yukon River over the weekend has led to serious flooding in Eagle, Circle and Fort Yukon.
Usually, the Snow Glacier and Skilak lakes release every two or three years. Both at the same time is unprecedented.
During a community meeting, Chevak residents said better emergency planning should be a long-term priority. For now, though, assessing damage is the focus.
In the Glenallen area, Yukon and Kuskokwim River communities, and Northwest Arctic floodwaters caused by snow melt and rapid warming have caused many communities to be flooded.
Officials say the floodwaters are swamping Alaska towns, tearing buildings from foundations, seeping into homes and covering roads. In Glennallen, the local utility is setting up Porta-Potties around the community, and area residents are asked to limit water usage. The state transportation department said there was water over a portion of the Glenn Highway on Monday, but the road remained open.
A 10-mile ice jam on the Lower Kuskokwim River has caused severe flooding in Tuluksak, with the area experiencing its worst flooding in over a decade.
Kwigillingok, a community on the Bering Sea coast of the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, is used to some flooding during high tides. But in recent years, that flooding has grown more severe, reaching a new threshold last week.
Meteorologists say the brunt of the storm is likely headed for the southern edge of the Seward Peninsula.
A historically powerful storm slammed into Western Alaska Friday night and into Saturday, bringing major flooding and high winds to a huge swath of coastal communities. By Saturday evening, the state said it had received no reports of injuries or deaths related to the storm. But damage had torn across hundreds of miles of Alaska’s coastline impacting communities all along the way. Alaskans described water flooding homes and roads. Wind tore off roofs. Houses floated off their foundations. Boats sank.
This has become the new norm across the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. Late winters and sudden thawing have turned roads into slush and made rivers and sloughs, which are necessary for travel, less safe because they take longer to freeze.
After a decade of heavy erosion, a lake in the Bristol Bay village of Port Heiden finally breached, sending water gushing into the bay.
The Kuskokwim River breakup has led to widespread flooding, affecting roads and drinking water in several communities, with Kwethluk experiencing significant impacts.
Fairbanks' May 10 temperature was two degrees below the daily record, while snow melt from an above-normal year is flooding Interior rivers.
Storms battered the southern Bering Sea and the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta last month. February storms aren’t unusual, but the amount of rain and flooding is. The combination caused a lot of damage for two communities in the region.
Flooding on Willow Creek Saturday night and Sunday has led to seven families being evacuated, with five people taking shelter at the Willow Community Center. The Willow Fire Department, Mat-Su Animal Care and the Mat-Su Water Rescue Team organized to assist those impacted by the flood.
In less than a day, the riverbank was eroded back more than 60 feet, threatening some cabins near the river.
Scientists believe a massive glacial dam release - or jökulhlaup - recently occurred in Southeast Alaska. But they probably would not have known about it if they had not been tipped off by an observant commercial fisherman.
Melting permafrost and severe erosion have plagued the community for decades. The most recent storm brought waves so fierce, the water claimed roughly half of the 80 or so remaining feet of land that stands between the back end of the school and the edge of the Ningliq river.
While many communities along the Kuskokwim River escaped major flooding, one small village is still seeing high water.
The Atchuelinguk Fire, an 800-acre tundra blaze near Marshall, Alaska, extinguished naturally. Ipsen said that the fire occurred in an area where blazes are allowed to play out when not threatening known sites of value or people. The cause of the fire has not been determined.
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