The community of Aklavik, N.W.T., persevered when devastating floods led the government to attempt to relocate it. Now it faces another existential crisis as climate change thaws the permafrost, forever changing the community’s landscape and wildlife.
The opening of the famed Dettah ice road, a six-kilometre route that cuts across Yellowknife Bay, is typically opened on Dec, 24, according to a 20-year average. Yet a week-and-a-half later, there's still no word on when it will be operational.
The remote community of roughly 600 people has been on flood watch for about a week and is the latest of several communities in the Northwest Territories to be affected by historic flooding on the Mackenzie River, caused by the spring breakup.
This spring’s closures on the Inuvik-Tuktoyaktuk Highway are a result of unusually wet weather and drivers failing to respect road closures, according to engineers with the Northwest Territories Infrastructure Department.
Chris Burn at Carleton University is tracking the growing cost of maintaining Yukon’s Dempster Highway as warmer weather brings more landslides, washouts and other challenges.
A permafrost scientist in the N.W.T. is leading an experiment that compacts snow near the Inuvik-Tuktoyaktuk Highway to see if that will slow down permafrost thaw and protect buildings and roads built atop it.
The hamlet said it's declaring a state of emergency because flooding from the Peel River cut off access to the community's airport, and because access to fresh water could be "inaccessible in the imminent future."
All Topics
All Countries
Any Date
Apply