Nearly half of the Northwest Arctic community of Kivalina evacuated to the village school over the weekend during a fall storm.
According to the National Weather Service, the storm brought significant snow, rain and a 4- to 6-foot water rise to western Alaska. In Kivalina, wind gusts reached 65 mph. No storm-related injuries were reported, and property damage was limited, but the storm knocked out power to part of the community, including the water plant and clinic. Conditions eased Saturday afternoon.
Colleen Swan, Kivalina’s search and rescue coordinator, said the storm hit Friday, when many village leaders, including the usual incident commander, were in Anchorage attending the Alaska Federation of Natives convention.
“We didn’t really know what was going to happen, and that was a hard part from the beginning,” Swan said. “There were so many unknowns, but you just don’t take chances with people’s lives.”
Kivalina, a community of about 440 people, sits on a low-lying island between the Chukchi Sea and a lagoon, about 80 miles northwest of Kotzebue. For decades the community has been planning to relocate because of erosion. During storms, residents often have to evacuate to the village school, located about 7 miles inland on higher ground.
Swan said volunteers began moving residents up the road to the school on Thursday. With no driver available for the school bus, residents rode in the school’s van and truck, and in volunteers’ vehicles.
According to the Northwest Arctic Borough School District, 202 people sheltered at the school over the weekend. Assistant Superintendent Jeff Alexander said in an email that school was not disrupted, and the majority of residents were housed in the gym and empty schoolrooms. He said as of Monday afternoon, the majority of residents had returned to their homes, except for a few elders and people who were still without electricity.
Swan said a lineman from the Alaska Village Electric Cooperative arrived Monday.
Fall storms like this are nothing new in Kivalina, but Swan said they are changing.
“These fall storms, they’re a given, but the strength of them are increasing because of how warm the ocean is,” she said. “There should be ice on the ocean to buffer the fall storm waves, but they’re not there anymore.”
She said ice that’s formed inland in the wetlands on the far side of the lagoon is problematic. Swan said water in the wetlands from a previous storm froze, so there's nowhere for the new storm surge water to drain. So the lagoon side of the village is now eroding.
She said workers are trying to haul gravel and rock to protect the shoreline, but have had equipment issues.
Swan said the storm showed how short-handed Kivalina is in an emergency, and that the village can’t keep facing these storms the same way.
“This one was so different because of the changes that we’ve seen,” she said. “We have to change with the environment, which means to not be reacting to these things anymore, but to be prepared.”
She said residents are preparing for the next round of weather. Monday night, the National Weather Service issued a coastal flood watch for Kivalina in effect through late Tuesday night, with water levels up to 5 feet above the normal high tide line.
