A storm of rare power is hitting western Alaska, causing huge waves and flooding that have washed away homes, the US Weather Services (NWS) said on Saturday.
“Remnants of Typhoon Merbok set to hit western Alaska […] over the weekend with extreme surf, hurricane force gusts, coastal erosion and heavy rain,” they tweeted.
“The floods will get worse,” they added.
“This is hands down the strongest storm, this early in the fall, that has ever been seen in the Bering Sea in the last 50 years,” Rick Thoman, climate scientist at the AFP, told AFP. University of Alaska Fairbanks.
In the coastal village of Golovin, “water surrounds the school, houses are flooded, at least two houses are floating,” described municipal services in Fairbanks, Alaska’s second-largest city.
Images posted on social media show extensive damage.
The NWS describes ‘very angry seas’ along the coast around Nome, with 3.3 meter waves.
Gusts of up to 145 km / h have been recorded, according to the NWS, which predicts others, even stronger.
The flood warning will remain in effect until 10 p.m. Saturday (6 a.m. GMT Sunday) in southern coastal areas and until 8.30 a.m. Sunday in northern areas, where the storm is heading, weather services said on Facebook. .