Water floods the Kotzebue lagoon. Grasses can be seen in July and a month later in August the water has risen 4-6 ft.
Kotzebue experienced one blizzard after another in March, and now with so much piled up and drifted snow, the community is struggling to dig out.
"I was born and raised in Kotzebue and have been through many storms. This was one of the worst."
It has been some years since we have had a long storm. March 6 marks the 3rd day and there have been no jets or small planes flying.
Community Water System at Risk: Extreme precipitation throughout the summer and sustained high water has resulted in erosion of the location for the water transmission line and Noatak's two water wells.
Unusual high water all summer in Noatak, causing massive erosion towards the airport and old buried landfill, exposing old trash into the river.
Photos show some of the erosion caused by surge of high water in late June on the Noatak River. As of June 29th, 24 feet of bank have been lost adjacent to the Noatak Airport, and 28 feet adjacent to the landfill.
River erosion in Noatak is posing a threat to wells and transmission lines along the bank as the river ebbs closer.
Staircases are separating from building and utility poles leaning.
The ground under the new road is developing a sink hole and affecting the foundation of the adjacent house.
Ground settling is causing a wide range of impacts in Noatak, including to the water treatment plant. But are there benchmarks to monitor the changes in the water plant?
The flooding was caused by a weather system that moved up to the Bering Sea from the tropics, and raised water levels and dumped rain across much of western Alaska.
A strong storm impacting NW Alaska with high winds and sea level rise (over 6 ft) caused localized flooding in Kotzebue.
Folks here are famous for being able to handle the cold, but anything wet in December has always made us nervous. Especially wet falling from the sky. Lately, weather, our favorite nemesis, has broken the rules. Our confidence in the most-trustworthy feature of the Arctic -- winter -- has been wounded.
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