On September 17, 2023 Typhoon Merbok hit the coast of Tununak, Alaska. Here are some photos taken by Roseanne Panruk, after the storm caused by Typhoon Merbok
“It got very cold the day we got there, it got down to like single digits and ice came out of the mountains and rivers and sloughs everywhere,” said Allyn Long, general manager of Alaska Logistics.
Kwigillingok, a community on the Bering Sea coast of the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, is used to some flooding during high tides. But in recent years, that flooding has grown more severe, reaching a new threshold last week.
In Chefornak, a family was forced to evacuate their home because a sinkhole caused by thawing permafrost formed underneath it. That family had to move into a building intended to be a quarantine facility.
About a year ago, Tununak opened a $19 million, state-of-the-art airport, but shifting permafrost is buckling the runway.
Tununak Airport near Bethel is facing a catastrophic problem, as airlines are refusing to land there due to the village's shifting permafrost.
Climate change is thawing the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta’s permafrost, and it’s doing more than cracking foundations, sinking roads and accelerating erosion.
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