Melting permafrost and severe erosion have plagued the community for decades. The most recent storm brought waves so fierce, the water claimed roughly half of the 80 or so remaining feet of land that stands between the back end of the school and the edge of the Ningliq river.

Forecasters say they are expecting significant coastal erosion from Utqiagvik to Unalakleet from the second severe-weather event to hit the region in three weeks.

A site visit to Newtok on September 30, shows severe erosion from impacts of storm (typhoon Merbok). The images show both severe permafrost melt and river erosion.

During a community meeting, Chevak residents said better emergency planning should be a long-term priority. For now, though, assessing damage is the focus.

Nome's landscape is physically altered, with raw material scattered wildly, the coastline reconfigured, and camps that anchored generations of subsistence either flattened or gone.

The storm could have threatened the town’s winter subsistence stock if not for the work of local power plant operators.

GOLOVIN RESIDENTS ARE IN CLEANUP MODE as their community works to restore power, phone service and clear debris. After the flood waters receded from the weekend’s severe fall storm, some locals are left with feet of sand in their homes. “At my place we’ve got three feet of sand we’re still shoveling out with the crew here, trying to get the sand out of the living area so we can get the sheetrock to go ahead and dry off,” Alaska Senator Donny Olson of Golovin said.

A historically powerful storm slammed into Western Alaska Friday night and into Saturday, bringing major flooding and high winds to a huge swath of coastal communities. By Saturday evening, the state said it had received no reports of injuries or deaths related to the storm. But damage had torn across hundreds of miles of Alaska’s coastline impacting communities all along the way. Alaskans described water flooding homes and roads. Wind tore off roofs. Houses floated off their foundations. Boats sank.

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

Over the past 24 hours, nearly 0.95 million houses and 0.72 million livestock were flooded while 0.27 million houses were destroyed and 3,116 kilometres of highways and 149 bridges were washed away.

A extremely wet month, extreme rain, and heavy visitor traffic have resulted in washout on some areas of the Reed Lakes Trail.

August 9, 2022 Borough officials said multiple roads were closed Tuesday and more were being monitored after several days of rain.

There has been alot of heavy weather hitting western Alaska this summer. Here are photos from recent storm surge in Kotzebue.

Local power supplies were cut off, apartment buildings were flooded, cars were seen being washed away and a river overflowed, leading to one civilian death and several injuries.

Drained lake basins make up more than half of the Arctic coastal plain, but the complete drainage of a lake is rarely witnessed by people.

"The event occurred on June 29th, on our native allotment near Kotzebue (Illivak). We left home in the morning and when we came back around 8:00 PM in the evening the whole lake had drained! It looked like it was blown up with dynamite."

The territorial government is alerting residents to be prepared for potential impacts of flooding in certain areas of Ross River.

It's coming up to peak flood season in BC with extra thick snowpack melting into rivers. On top of that, an atmospheric river is coming.