Winds gusted up to 46 mph and about 2.4 inches of rain fell from Friday to Sunday.
Winds of up to 85 mph ripped up the Southwest Alaska coast on Friday, upending smokehouses, tearing electric lines and flinging a house across the road.
Storms tore more land away from Napakiak’s already heavily eroded riverbank in early August. About eight feet of bank fell into the Kuskokwim River, adding to the more than 100 feet of shoreline that has already been lost this year.
An ice jam is holding downstream of Napaimute, flooding the seasonal village. At Aniak, the ice is shifting, according to Aniak resident Dave Cannon.
Minor flood stage will begin Monday morning, with flood water expected to crest sometime early Tuesday.
The Kuskokwim River breakup has led to widespread flooding, affecting roads and drinking water in several communities, with Kwethluk experiencing significant impacts.
About a year ago, Tununak opened a $19 million, state-of-the-art airport, but shifting permafrost is buckling the runway.
If you’re living in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta a hundred years from now, it’s going to be hot and wet, according to a new study by scientists at the International Arctic Research Center, an institute at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
The village is losing ground three times faster than it was 10 years ago, according to studies of Napakiak’s erosion. During high tide, the river is only 64 feet from the high-schoolers’ original classroom and gets closer by the day. On windy days, waves crash against the shore where students used to play, battering it until the land relents and crumbles.
In villages like Kongiganak, communities have stopped burying their dead because, as the permafrost melts, the oldest part of their cemetery is sinking.
Akiak City Administrator David Gilila says the village is in danger of becoming an island in the Kuskokwim River.
Communities along the lower Kuskokwim River and coastal areas in Western Alaska assess damage from recent storms, with flooding and erosion impacting homes and infrastructure, and a new storm potentially exacerbating conditions.
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.
Climate change is thawing the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta’s permafrost, and it’s doing more than cracking foundations, sinking roads and accelerating erosion.
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