Flooding was beginning to recede Sunday in parts of western Alaska that were hit by the region’s worst storm in 50 years, leaving behind debris scattered by powerful Bering Sea swells onto beaches and coastal communities.
The remnants of Typhoon Merbok were weakening Sunday as they moved north from the Bering Strait into the Chukchi Sea off Alaska’s northwestern coast, where they still threaten smaller communities, said Kaitlyn Lardeo of the National Weather Service. .
“This guy is going to stay in the Chukchi Sea for a few more days and then it’s going to weaken quickly because it’s so stationary,” he said.
Several communities reported that some residences were torn from their foundations by the force of the water, which was often propelled by wind gusts of up to 70 miles per hour (113 kilometers per hour). A house in Nome floated down the river until it got stuck under a bridge.
It was a huge storm system, big enough to cover the continental United States from the Pacific Ocean to Nebraska and from Canada to Texas. It influenced other weather systems all the way to California, where a rare late-summer storm dumped rain across the northern part of the state, giving firefighters battling wildfires some respite but also making their jobs more difficult with mud and loose dirt. .
The storm surge caused widespread flooding and damage along 1,000 miles (1,609 kilometers) of the Alaskan coastline, Gov. Mike Dunleavy said.
No injuries, deaths or missing persons have been reported in the state, the governor added during a press conference on Sunday. A boy who had been reported missing on Saturday was later located, he said.
Dunleavy reported that there are damaged roads and that state authorities are evaluating possible damage to jetties, water and wastewater systems, airports and ports. He said the Hooper Bay, Scammon Bay, Golovin, Newtok and Nome communities were hardest hit by a combination of high water levels, flooding, erosion and electrical problems, either in the towns or at their airports.
American Red Cross and emergency management personnel will be deployed to those cities beginning Monday, and Alaska National Guardsmen will be dispatched to Nome, Bethel and Hooper Bay to help people. Red Cross volunteers from the lower 48 states will also assess food, water and shelter needs in other flooded towns.
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Weber reported from Los Angeles. AP journalist Nishit Morsawala contributed to this report from London.
