ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A strong storm sweeping north by the Bering Strait on Saturday prompted widespread flooding in a number of western Alaska coastal communities, knocking out energy and sending residents fleeing for larger floor.
The drive of the water moved some properties off their foundations, and one home in Nome floated down a river till it obtained caught at a bridge.
The potent storm — what stays of Storm Merbok — has been influencing climate patterns as far-off as California, the place sturdy winds and a uncommon late-summer rainstorm had been anticipated.
In Alaska, no accidents or deaths had been instantly reported, mentioned Jeremy Zidek, spokesperson for the Alaska Division of Homeland Safety and Emergency Administration. Officers had warned some locations may see their worst flooding in 50 years and that the excessive waters may take as much as 14 hours to recede.
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Gov. Mike Dunleavy issued a catastrophe declaration in the course of the day.
The almost 1,000-mile (1,609-kilometer) storm entrance has broken roads and doubtlessly different infrastructure, Dunleavy mentioned at a Saturday night information convention. Officers will consider any results on water and sewer programs, seawalls, gasoline storage areas, airports, and ports.
Federal Emergency Administration Company representatives had been already in Alaska earlier than the storm, and Dunleavy mentioned they’ll keep to assist assess injury.
“Our aim is to get the assessments finished as quickly as attainable,” he mentioned. “We’re going to maneuver as shortly as we will to offer reduction, present restoration, present the necessities that folks want.”
Among the many hardest hit communities was Golovin, a village of 170 or so residents who principally sought shelter at a college or in three buildings on a hillside. Winds within the village gusted over 60 mph (95 kph) and the water rose 11 ft (3.3 meters) above the traditional excessive tide line and was anticipated to rise one other 2 ft (60 centimeters) Saturday earlier than cresting.
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“Many of the decrease a part of the group is all flooded with buildings and buildings inundated,” mentioned Ed Plumb, a meteorologist with the Nationwide Climate Service in Fairbanks.
Clarabelle Lewis, the power supervisor for the tribal authorities, the Chinik Eskimo Group, was amongst those that sought refuge on the hill overlooking Golovin. She and others had been using out the storm within the tribal workplace after securing objects at their properties from the excessive winds and serving to neighbors do the identical.
“The winds had been howling; it was noisy,” she mentioned.
Most communities skilled wind gusts starting from 41 mph (66 kph) to 67 mph (108 kph), however Cape Romanzof had peak winds of 91 mph (146 kph), the climate service mentioned.
Lewis has by no means skilled a storm like this in 20 years residing in Golovin.
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“We’ve had flooding previously just a few occasions, nevertheless it was by no means this extreme,” she mentioned. “We’ve by no means had properties moved from their foundations.”
There have been additionally studies of flooding in Hooper Bay, St. Michael’s, Unalakleet and Shaktoolik, the place waves crashed over the berm in entrance of the group, Plumb mentioned.
In Hooper Bay, greater than 250 individuals took shelter inside the varsity, Bethel public radio station KYUK reported. The village is without doubt one of the largest alongside the coast with almost 1,400 residents.
The varsity’s vice principal, Brittany Taraba, mentioned three properties had been knocked off their foundations and enormous elements of the village had been flooded.
Residents are supporting one another, together with donating lately caught and processed moose to feed these sheltering on the faculty.
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“It’s actually superb to observe this group,” Taraba informed KYUK.
Plumb mentioned the storm would observe by the Bering Strait on Saturday after which head into the Chukchi Sea.
“After which it’s going to sort of park and weaken simply west of Level Hope,” he mentioned of the group on Alaska’s northwest coast.
He mentioned there can be excessive water within the neighborhood of the northern Bering Sea by Saturday night time earlier than ranges begin to subside by Sunday. Rising water ranges farther north, within the Chukchi Sea and Kotzebue Sound areas, had been anticipated into Sunday.
In Northern California, wind gusts as much as 40 mph (64 kph) had been forecast in a single day Saturday and into Sunday morning alongside coastal areas from Sonoma County right down to Santa Cruz and at larger elevations within the Sierra Nevada, the climate service mentioned.
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Winds that sturdy can blow down branches and drought-stressed bushes and trigger energy outages, mentioned climate service meteorologist Ryan Walbrun.
Storms had been anticipated to begin Sunday morning and dump as much as 3 inches (7.6 centimeters) of rain in coastal areas of Sonoma County and a bit much less as rains transfer southward to the San Francisco space and into the Santa Cruz mountains, Walbrun mentioned.
“It’s a reasonably important rain for this early within the season,” he mentioned, including that the storms are forecast to proceed on and off by a minimum of Monday, making commutes to work moist with slick roads.
Within the Sierra Nevada foothills northeast of the state capital of Sacramento, fireplace crews have been preventing what has develop into the most important wildfire in that state to this point this yr. Whereas rain is required, the winds had been a priority for crews battling the Mosquito Fireplace, which was 21% contained as of Saturday morning.
“The winds will certainly trigger erratic fireplace conduct” that would ignite new scorching spots regardless of the welcome moisture, mentioned Cal Fireplace spokesman Scott McLean. “The rain isn’t going to place out the fireplace however it’ll assist.”
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Gecker reported from San Francisco.
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ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – Alaska’s first “flyball” league held its annual “Great Alaska Barkout Flyball Tournament” on Saturday in midtown at Alyeska Canine Trainers.
Flyball is a fast-paced sport in which relay teams of four dogs and their handlers compete to cross the finish line first while carrying a tennis ball launched from a spring loaded box. Saturday’s tournament was one of several throughout the year held by “Dogs Gone Wild,” which started in 2004 as Alaska’s first flyball league.
“We have here in Alaska, we’ve got, I think it’s about 6 tournaments per year,” said competitor and handler Maija Doggett. “So you know every other month or so there will be a tournament hosted. Most of them are hosted right here at Alyeska Canine Trainers.”
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Last week, Superior Court Judge Andrew Guidi indicated he will rule that Alaska does not have authority to permit access across its lands to facilitate oil and gas development on the North Slope.
The Alaska Dept. of Natural Resources plans to fight and appeal any final adverse ruling that undermines the state’s constitutional interests in resource development.
The Department of Natural Resources has issued a permit allowing Oil Search Alaska (OSA) to cross the Kuparuk River Unit, operated by Conoco Phillips Alaska, to develop the Pikka Unit. As described in the State’s brief to the court, “the denial of such access implicates the delay of development of millions of barrels of oil and billions of dollars of public revenues.”
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“The State of Alaska has a constitutional obligation to maximize the development of our resources,” DNR Commissioner John Boyle said on Nov. 22. “We have to confirm with the Supreme Court that we have the authority to permit access for all developers to ensure we can meet this obligation.”
Once the Superior Court issues the final judgement, Alaska will be able to file its appeal. This is expected to occur in the coming weeks.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – For Juneau resident Tamara Roberts, taking photos of the northern lights was just a hobby — that is until a different light altogether caught her eye.
Capturing what she’s called strange lights in the skies of Juneau near her home on Thunder Mountain, Roberts said she’s taken 30 to 40 different videos and photos of the lights since September 2021.
“Anytime I’m out, I’m pretty sure that I see something at least a couple times a week,” Roberts said. “I’m definitely not the only one that’s seeing them. And if people just pay more attention, they’ll notice that those aren’t stars and those aren’t satellites.”
Roberts has been a professional photographer for over 20 years. She said she changed interests from photographing people to wildlife and landscape when she moved to Juneau 13 years ago.
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Once she started making late-night runs trying to capture the northern lights, she said that’s when she started encountering her phenomenon.
Roberts said not every encounter takes place above Thunder Mountain: her most recent sighting happened near the Mendenhall Glacier while her stepmom was visiting from Arizona.
“She’d never been here before, so we got up and we drove up there, and lo and behold, there it was,” Roberts said. “I have some family that absolutely thinks it’s what it is, and I have some family that just doesn’t care.”
Roberts described another recent encounter near the glacier she said was a little too close for comfort. While driving up alone in search of the northern lights, she expected to see other fellow photographers out for the same reason as she normally does.
But this night was different.
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“I’ve gone up there a million times by myself, and this night, particularly, it was clear, it was cold and the [aurora] KP index was high … so as I’m driving up and there’s nobody there. And I was like, Okay, I’ll just wait and somebody will show up.’ So I backed up into the parking spot underneath the street light — the only light that’s really there on that side of the parking lot — and I turned all my lights off, left my car running, looked around, and there was that light right there, next to the mountain.”
Roberts said after roughly 10 minutes of filming the glowing light, still not seeing anyone else around, she started to get a strange feeling that maybe she should leave.
“I just got this terrible gut feeling,” Roberts said. “I started to pull out of my parking spot and my car sputtered. [It] scared me so bad that I just gunned the accelerator, but my headlights … started like flashing and getting all crazy.
“I had no headlights, none all the way home, no headlights.”
According to the Juneau Police Department, there haven’t been any reports of strange lights in the sky since Sept. 14, when police say a man was reportedly “yelling about UFOs in the downtown area.”
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Responding officers said they did not locate anything unusual, and no arrests were made following the man’s report.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration National Weather Service in Juneau also said within the last seven days, no reports of unusual activity in the skies had been reported. The Federal Aviation Administration in Juneau did not respond.
With more and more whistleblowers coming forward in Congressional hearings, Roberts said she thinks it’s only a matter of time before the truth is out there.
“Everybody stayed so quiet all these years for the fear of being mocked,” Roberts said. “Now that people are starting to come out, I think that people should just let the reality be what it is, and let the evidence speak for itself, because they’re here, and that’s all there is to it.”
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