Rain from the storm that began Tuesday night broke records in Nome and Kotzebue. According to the National Weather Service, Kotzebue had the most rainfall in a single day. And there might have been more, but the sensors stopped working sometime during the flooding. All that rain and wind rivaled last year’s October storm, but officials say they were more prepared this year.
“A lot of debris was washed up on Front Street again, a lot like last year,” said Kotzebue Mayor Derek Haviland-Lie. “The north end of town was hit pretty hard. We are hoping to address some of that before the next storm.”
On Thursday, Gov. Mike Dunleavy issued a disaster declaration for Western Alaska, following a mandatory evacuation for Kotzebue residents the day before. According to Haviland-Lie, 103 people sheltered at Kotzebue Middle High School on Wednesday night when the storm was most severe.
Haviland-Lie said the Northwest Arctic Borough, the State Emergency Operations Center and Kotzebue officials are coordinating efforts to document the damage by going door-to-door in harder hit areas of town. A National Guardsman and an Alaska State Defence Force personnel are also in Kotzebue assisting residents with the assessments.
Haviland-Lie said some of the most severe damage to city infrastructure was to the First and Second Bridge.
“There was some undercutting on the abutments to the bridges themselves,” Haviland-Lie said. “In some areas up to six feet was eaten away.”
Ted Steven’s Way, a nine-mile loop that includes those bridges and leads to Kotzebue's drinking water source, is closed. Haviland-Lie said the city would likely open it up to one-lane access, but the bridge needs to be assessed by a state Department of Transportation engineer before opening up fully.
Other Northwest Arctic communities experienced damage from the storm, said Melissa Ivanoff, the borough’s assistant to the mayor. The borough received disaster declarations from city officials in Kotzebue, Kivalina, Noatak and Deering.
Deering and Noatak reported erosion. A representative from Noatak’s tribe said the storm affected areas already impacted by erosion near the community’s drinking water line and airport runway. Damage in Kivalina might be more extensive.
“It gets worse,” said Millie Hawley, tribal administrator for the Native Village of Kivalina. “Every year the water levels are worse, the water came in more than usual.”
Hawley said around 80% of Kivalina’s 400 residents evacuated to the community's school, seven miles from town.
Now she’s worried about a new threat to the village: a channel has started to develop between the airstrip and the community's dump.
“So our island will be less than a mile long. Right now it's eight miles long, and if there's a channel, then there'll be another free flow of water going in the area,” said Hawley. “The village will fill up faster than what we've seen in the past.”
Hawley said search and rescue teams have been hauling gravel to try to prevent the channel from developing.
Hawley said there were other damages too — during the flooding, a portion of an elder’s home burned and won't be livable for winter. She said another community member lost their boat.
According to Hawley, the community is preparing for the remnants of Typhoon Halong, set to hit the Northwest Arctic beginning Sunday night. Many of the community’s elders are leaving over the weekend to attend the Elders and Youth Conference and the Alaska Federation of Natives convention in Anchorage. Hawley said she’s happy to know at least the elders will be safe from the upcoming storm.
