A tundra fire has burned nearly 2,000 acres on the Selawik National Wildlife Refuge over the past week.
Of the 89 wildfires burning across Alaska right now, several are in the northern part of the state, either in the Arctic or near its southern boundary.
Sixty years ago there were 12 of these such cellars in Kaktovik.Today there is only one left. All the other family cellars have been flooded and have collapsed.
Cleanup and recovery from the recent storm that battered the North Slope coastline may carry a price tag exceeding $10 million.
The storm began Sept. 28 and continued for several days. A handful of Utqiaġvik’s roads were damaged or destroyed, and the community's freshwater source was nearly compromised.
As of Tuesday, two new fires had started in the Galena Zone, bringing the total number of fires in the area to 35. To date this year, wildland fires have burned more than 44,000 acres in the region.
"Yesterday we came over to do an assessment of the high-water flood storm," said Northwest Arctic Borough Deputy Director of Public Services Dickie Moto, who grew up in Deering. "They lost a lot of ground on the front and on the back side of town because of the high water and rough seas.
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