Photos: Shaktoolik suffers winter storm damage

ExpandAutoplay

Image 1 of 7

Shaktoolik suffered more erosion from a 2013 storm, which removed significant deposits of driftwood from the beach.

When the ocean turns violent and waves slam the ground not far from his doorstep, Mike Sookiayak can feel the blows vibrate in his chest. His youngest children inevitably ask when their eroding strip of a village will wash away.

"It's like a war zone down there, so loud and noisy it sounds like bombs going off," Sookiayak said.

The fear has spread through the Alaska Native community of 250 just south of the Arctic Circle during the big Bering Sea tempests that have pummeled Shaktoolik, such as the storm last fall that splintered abandoned shacks, flooded septic tanks and plowed heaps of driftwood onto the ground near houses.

Those storms, especially if they arrive when the shore lacks protective ice, have helped rank Shaktoolik among Alaska's most climate-imperiled villages. But instead of rebuilding on higher ground as soon as possible, as it once wanted to do and as other villages are trying to do, the community has decided to stay put and fight, hopefully for decades.

Relocation is estimated to cost some $290 million, said Sookiayak, or more than $1 million for each resident.

"We took a hard look at what was happening in Shishmaref, Kivalina and Newtok, and we realized it would have cost too much money for us," said Sookiayak.

One approach laid out in the new plan calls for building a storm-surge mound from sand and gravel extracted from the beach, creating a man-made hill perhaps 15 feet tall that would become the highest ground in town. The mound would be large enough to protect everyone and could be seeded with plants and armored with large rocks to provide additional stability, said Harvey Smith, a state coastal engineer.

READ MORE: ALONG A MENACING OCEAN, SHAKTOOLIK STARES DOWN CLIMATE CHANGE AND REFUSES TO BUDGE