Alaska News

Alaska Gov. Walker declares disaster after costly fall storm on North Slope

After a September storm caused severe damage to roads in the far-north community of Utqiagvik, Alaska Gov. Bill Walker has formally declared a disaster there, giving the town access to state cash.

Walker signed the disaster declaration Tuesday. It gives Utqiagvik — formerly Barrow — access to state money to help repair damaged infrastructure like roads, as well as for administrative and management costs.

The storm took place in late September, with 8-foot waves and sustained winds above 30 miles an hour.

[Related: Autumn storm that battered Utqiagvik coastline caused more than $10 million in damage]

At least one of the town's roads — a 3,700-foot beach road between an airstrip and a lagoon — was destroyed, and others were seriously damaged, the Arctic Sounder reported.

The damage to the beach road cut off the town from a critical spot used for harvesting whales in bad weather, the North Slope Borough wrote in a fact sheet about the storm's damage.

Utqiagvik's protective berms failed in several areas, but the borough had nearly fixed them by early October, the Sounder reported.

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Seven historic and cultural sites were also damaged and submerged by the storm, said Bryan Fisher, a spokesman for the Alaska Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.

Borough officials initially said cleanup and repair costs could top $10 million. But the state expects the amount to be lower, Fisher said.

State and federal emergency managers are in Utqiagvik this week assessing damages and coming up with a more precise estimate. If the damage is severe enough, the federal government could end up covering three-fourths of cleanup costs, Fisher said.

Repairs made during the storm were initially estimated to cost $1.3 million, but that doesn't include permanent fixes, Fisher said.

Borough officials didn't immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday about the disaster declaration.

Laurel Andrews contributed reporting.

Nathaniel Herz

Anchorage-based independent journalist Nathaniel Herz has been a reporter in Alaska for nearly a decade, with stints at the Anchorage Daily News and Alaska Public Media. Read his newsletter, Northern Journal, at natherz.substack.com

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