The National Weather Service warned major coastal flooding was possible in east Norton Sound villages Wednesday night as storms hammered much of Western and Northern Alaska during the day.

The blizzards hit coastal communities as sea ice is only beginning to form, leaving village buildings without a natural buffer against waves and hunks of ice, according to the Weather Service.

"Because it's happening so early and there's a lot of open water out there, then coastal flooding starts to be a big hazard," said Stephen Kearney, an intern meteorologist for the Weather Service in Fairbanks.

A separate storm hit Anchorage on Wednesday afternoon, dropping one to two inches of wet snow. "Warm snow fell on a cold surface. It kind of melted and froze, so we have ice at every intersection," said Anchorage police Lt. Dave Parker. Accident reports were way up, he said.

The iced roads prompted the Anchorage School District to cancel trips to Mat-Su by the Dimond and Bartlett boys hockey teams.

The Weather Service urged people along St. Lawrence Island, the Bering Strait coast and the Yukon Delta to move belongings away from the coast. Residents in Nome and Kotzebue reported blizzard conditions, while the Weather Service issued a winter storm warning through this morning for as far inland as the southeastern Brooks Range and central Interior.

The state Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management reported no flooding as of late Wednesday afternoon. Some villagers were preparing to move to higher ground if necessary.

In Shaktoolik the village moved elders to the school and residents boarded up windows of at least one home, said Edgar Jackson Jr., a cashier for the village corporation store.

The community of about 220 people is on the east shore of Norton Sound. People who live on the ocean side of town are being told to be ready to evacuate to the gym if necessary, Jackson said Wednesday afternoon.

Water was rising fast in nearby Unalakleet as of 3 p.m., said city administrator Herb Ivanoff.

"We've moved some food and stuff to the clinic area in case we need to start moving people here after a bit," he said.

In Stebbins, resident Ron Kirk said the Norton Sound community normally expects to see this kind of storm earlier in the year -- maybe August.

"In the past, in November, our ocean ice was frozen. Now it's not," said Kirk, who blames climate change. "We have to worry a lot more right now about our boats on the coast down here ... so we won't get them runned over by ice."

The storm appeared in Nome and Bering Sea areas Tuesday night, according to the Weather Service. It could begin to fade today.

"It's still packing a lot of energy and punch overnight tonight and it'll just keep producing these elevated water levels and strong winds until at least early morning (today) in various locations," said John Lingaas, warning coordination meteorologist in Fairbanks.

Read The Village, the ADN's blog about rural Alaska, at adn.com/thevillage. Twitter updates: twitter.com/adnvillage. Call Kyle Hopkins at 257-4334.

ADVERTISEMENT