Storm battering western Alaska causes widespread flooding

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A powerful storm traveling north through the Bering Strait on Saturday caused widespread flooding in several western Alaska coastal communities, knocking out power and sending residents fleeing for higher ground.

The force of the water moved some homes off their foundations, and one house in Nome was floating down a river until it got caught at a bridge. The storm is what remains of Typhoon Merbok, a storm that is also influencing weather patterns as far away as California, where strong winds and a rare late-summer rainstorm were expected.

In Alaska, there have been no reports of injuries or deaths from the storm, said Jeremy Zidek, spokesperson for the Alaska Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management. Officials had warned communities that some places could see the worst flooding in 50 years and water could take up to 14 hours to recede.

Gov. Mike Dunleavy on Saturday issued a disaster declaration.

Among the hardest hit was Golovin, where most of the village’s 170 or so residents either took shelter at the school or in three buildings on a hillside.

Winds in the area were gusting over 60 mph and the water level was 11 feet above the normal high tide line and was expected to rise another 2 feet Saturday before cresting.

“Most of the lower part of the community is all flooded with structures and buildings inundated,” said Ed Plumb, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Fairbanks.

Clarabelle Lewis, the facility manager for the tribal government, the Chinik Eskimo Community, was among those who sought refuge on the hill overlooking Golovin.

She and others were riding out the storm in the tribal office after securing items at their homes from the winds.