A September storm caused damage in Utqiagvik, and Gov. Bill Walker declared a disaster there last month.
The slide occurred at a time when forecasters in the region are cautioning backcountry skiers and snowboarders about the potential for warming weather to increase avalanche risk.
Winds gusted up to 46 mph and about 2.4 inches of rain fell from Friday to Sunday.
Akiak City Administrator David Gilila says the village is in danger of becoming an island in the Kuskokwim River.
Port Heiden’s road to its harbor and old village site is crumbling into the sea and the lake on the other side of it will likely breach soon. “The road is basically gone. [Erosion]’s cut right half into the road,” said Scott Anderson, the Native Village of Port Heiden’s Tribal Environmental Director.
Because ice makes up a good portion of the underground foundation of northern Alaska, thawing has dropped the landscape as much as 3 feet in some places.
In Utqiaġvik, where the coast is eroding at some of the fastest rates in the nation, storms, flooding and thawing permafrost damage houses, roads and cultural sites. Ice forms later each year and storms are becoming longer and more severe.
When 200 million metric tons of rock tumbled down a remote Southeast Alaska mountain in October, nobody was around to see it. But thanks to a beefed-up seismic network and a new system that can distinguish landslides from earthquakes, scientists knew it had happened.
Areas of the Southeast Alaska city “received between 3 and 7 inches of rain” in 24 hours over the weekend. The sodden ground caused mudslides in some areas, and wrecked roads and ditches around John Street and Peters Lane in Douglas.
As of Monday evening, no structures had been damaged in the Munson Creek Fire, which was less than a half mile from the popular resort.
Ketchikan officials say there’s “currently no danger of dam failure” but noted that a flood advisory is in place through Sunday.
A tsunami warning was issued for areas along the Alaska Peninsula coastline following the 7.4 earthquake, which was centered 62 miles from Sand Point. In this post, you can find links to the US Tsunami Warning Centers, as well as information on creating home emergency kits during COVID. We hope everyone stays safe as this event unfolds, and welcome observations of conditions along the Alaska Peninsula.
City park staff have set up barriers in hopes of encouraging passersby to stay far away. Potential fixes could include putting up a wall and relocating the bike path or road.
The incident appears similar to an oil and gas release in 2017 blamed on thawing permafrost and hot production fluids.
In villages like Kongiganak, communities have stopped burying their dead because, as the permafrost melts, the oldest part of their cemetery is sinking.
A new study estimates that climate impacts to public infrastructure in Alaska will total about $5 billion by century's end.
Temperatures in the area were unseasonably high last week, reaching into the mid-40s, according to the National Weather Service. Then temperatures dropped below freezing Sunday and into Monday morning. "There's a lot of water flowing underground in this area," McCarthy said. The freeze-thaw "caused some instability and that made it slide."
Alaskas tundra landscapes carpet a good portion of the state, from the North Slope to the elbow of the Alaska Peninsula. Researchers say it's slowly sinking in places -- as much as a fifth of an inch each year.
The Northway Mall in northeast Anchorage sits almost totally empty. That’s led to people dumping loads of trash, furniture, appliances and industrial waste all over the property.
The McCarthy Road was closed between Mile 0 and 1 in Chitina on Monday, June 3, 2024, after a portion of the road sank. The transportation department is still assessing the cause of the road settlement, Perreault said, but it is not river washout or a landslide.
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