A powerful storm sweeping 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.
In Alaska, no injuries or deaths were immediately reported, said Jeremy Zidek, spokesperson for the Alaska Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management. Officials had warned some places could see their worst flooding in 50 years and that the high waters could take up to 14 hours to recede.Among the hardest hit was Golovin, a village of 170 or so residents who mostly sought shelter at a school or in three buildings on a hillside.
In Hooper Bay, more than 250 people took shelter inside the school, Bethel public radio station KYUK reported. The village is one of the largest along the coast with nearly 1,400 residents. “And then it’s going to kind of park and weaken just west of Point Hope,” he said of the community on Alaska’s northwest coast.
Winds that strong can blow down branches and drought-stressed trees and cause power outages, said weather service meteorologist Ryan Walbrun.
was Sarah Palin's house sent down river? if so, I hope she was in it.