Weather

In the final days of 2016, a Bering Sea storm battered St. Lawrence Island, causing wind and water damage to many buildings in Savoonga.

The community declared a local disaster and asked for assistance from the state in order to restore their livelihoods.

As of Friday, 30 residents are claiming storm damage to their homes or shelters, along with the community’s teen center and the city office.

Each building that suffered damage from the winter storm has to go through a damage assessment conducted by the Alaska Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.

Alaska Department of Homeland Security’s John Ramsey described the criteria he’s looking for when conducting a damage assessment.

“We look and see if the building is: Number One, livable or not, if it’s a home, if there (are) any damages, what the extent of the damage is, so we know if it’s habitable or not,” Ramsay said. “If there’s any emergency housing that needs to be done for individuals or families at the time a disaster happens, and, then, basically just do a tally to see what the impact on the community is for a disaster.”

Ramsey was in Savoonga back in 2011 after another storm left the community without power for four days.

Savoonga Mayor Myron Kingeekuk believes this latest storm caused more structural damage than the storm in 2011.

“We’re at Harry’s house right now,” Kingeekuk said with a sigh. “After the storm died down we repaired the roof, and we just found out that the attic got damaged by water. So he tore off his whole carpet in there, so hopefully, we get help for her and we still got to look at lots of homes.”

Two DHSEM employees, two Red Cross representatives and Kingeekuk walked from home to home trying not to fall on the slick, ice-covered roads.

Alaska Homeland Security emergency management specialist Karl Edwards led the damage assessment by asking each homeowner more or less the same questions.

“After the roof fell off or came off, did you get any water damage?” Edwards asked. “Did you have any electrical problems, is the Toyo (stove) still working.”

Some buildings were missing chunks of siding or roofing; others had tarps covering some openings where walls used to be, and many structures had foundation issues.

During the height of the storm on New Year’s weekend, when winds were reported to be gusting at more than 117mph, Savoonga’s school was used as a safe haven.

Principal Ralph Lundquist and most of the school employees were out of town for winter break that weekend, creating a poorly supervised environment for the 93 community members staying in the temporary shelter.

Fairbanks Red Cross disaster program manager Michael Verrier said the Red Cross can provide shelter management training, free of charge, to help community members in Savoonga become self-sustaining during storm disasters.

“We have volunteer shelter instructors that can help give shelter training and do a shelter exercise with interested people that are within the community, so that when an event like this happens in the future, there’s people that are within the community that are able to open the shelter, keep it safe, keep it secure as best as possible,” Verrier said.

Verrier and his colleague from the Red Cross stayed in Savoonga until Sunday to complete their own damage assessment in conjunction with the Homeland Security. Verrier said the Red Cross could provide financial assistance to individuals in the community so they can repair their damages, but the Red Cross cannot buy materials directly for them.

Ultimately, Savoonga is asking the state for assistance through a disaster declaration letter, but Karl Edwards with Homeland Security explains there is a limit to the needs his department can meet.

The rest of the aid would have to come from either volunteer organizations, the governor, or both.

“They requested assistance from the state, from my office to help them through the disaster process, so that entails myself and some others coming out, looking at the community, trying to total up the damage, and then, we present it to the Disaster Policy Cabinet,” Edwards said. “The Disaster Policy Cabinet will make a recommendation to the Governor, and then, the Governor will make the final decision as to what we’re going to do for this community.”

Kingeekuk hopes this disaster declaration letter will result in his community getting the help it needs. It is unknown how long it will take for a disaster declaration letter to be submitted to the Disaster Policy Cabinet, but Edwards is confident that the process will be expedited.

Two injury accidents in two days have occurred along one stretch of often-icy road in Kodiak.

A Kodiak teenager was injured Sunday evening when his car crashed near the Coast Guard Base.

Devan Monkiewicz, 18, was driving Sunday on Rezanof Drive West when his car left the roadway and crashed in a ditch near Mile 9, Alaska State Troopers said.

The engine compartment of his 2007 Subaru burst into flames.

Monkiewicz was wearing a seat belt in the crash, but was found unconscious when witnesses pulled him out of the burning car.

Emergency medical technicians transported him to Providence Kodiak Island Medical Center, and he was later medevac’d to Anchorage.

His current condition was unavailable.

The Coast Guard police and fire department units assisted in the incident.

The car was destroyed.

Less than a day earlier, a Kodiak woman was hospitalized after her car hit a patch of ice and left the road at Mile 7.5 of Rezanof Drive West, along Womens Bay.

Maryelizabeth Dehning, 25, was driving a 2015 Nissan Rogue then collided with a utility pole, breaking its base.

Dehnning was transported by EMS to Providence with what troopers reported as moderate injuries. Her vehicle was a total loss.

Weekend ferry service from Juneau to Haines and Skagway has been disrupted by windy conditions in Lynn Canal.

Alaska Department of Transportation spokesman Jeremy Woodrow said scheduled sailings for the ferry Aurora on Friday and Sunday were canceled after forecasts for high winds.

“Those high winds bring with (them) freezing spray and that provides danger to the life rafts on that vessel,” Woodrow said.

The National Weather Service reported wind speeds up to 55 knots in Lynn Canal this weekend with heavy freezing spray and seas reaching 15 feet.

Friday’s cancellation prevented the Thunder Mountain High School basketball team from reaching a tournament in Skagway.

Woodrow said the ferry Kennicott will sail to Haines and Skagway, Monday. He said the Kennicott is better suited to travel in high winds and seas.

The village of Newtok has requested a federal disaster declaration from President Barack Obama to address ongoing erosion and thawing permafrost. It’s one of the first tests of whether the nation’s disaster relief laws can be used to deal with the slow-moving impacts of climate change.

Disaster declarations, which make a community eligible for federal funding, are usually reserved for specific catastrophic events — like a hurricane or landslide. But Newtok is applying for damage that has occurred through many smaller incidents over the last ten years. It’s a long shot, but village relocation coordinator Romy Cadiente says, at this point, the village doesn’t have a lot of options.

“We just need to get out of there,” Cadiente said. “We really do. For the safety of the 450 people there. We need to get out of there.”

Many Alaska villages are facing erosion and thawing permafrost made worse by warming temperatures, but Newtok’s needs are maybe the most immediate. The village has lost its barge landing, sewage lagoon and landfill. It expects to lose its current drinking water source this year, and the airport and school by 2020. More than half the homes in the village have been damaged by thawing permafrost. Six homes are at immediate risk from coastal erosion.

The community is ready to move: there’s a new site, with several houses already built. The major problem, Cadiente said, is money. Money for key and expensive infrastructure, like a new airstrip, school, and water source.

“The price tag on this village move is astronomical,” Cadiente said. “We’re thinking probably in the $150 to $300 million range. And what we have right now is nowhere near.”

And, after more than a decade of waiting, Newtok needs that money now.

Alaska had hoped to fund the relocation with a grant from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, but the state learned last winter it had been turned down. Officials cast about for another solution and settled on the Stafford Act. That’s the law that governs disaster relief, coordinated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

The only problem? It’s never been used for a multi-year disaster before. That’s according to Newtok village attorney Mike Walleri and Erin Ward, of FEMA’s Region X office.

But Walleri argues nothing in the law prevents the president from declaring a disaster for a multi-year event like the thawing permafrost in Newtok.

“You know, disasters are not planned, and they don’t come in one size fits all,” he said. “And FEMA over its life has, I think, understood that. And it’s tried to adapt to the changing circumstances of these disasters.”

Newtok is the first test of that theory.

Rob Verchick teaches at the Loyola University College of Law in New Orleans, where he focuses on disaster law and climate adaptation.

“This is a trailblazing effort that will definitely put problems like this on the radar screen for federal and state policy makers and make it impossible for the public, I hope, to avoid these kinds of discussions in the future,” Verchick said. “Because Newtok may be the first community to make such a request, but it is not the only community that’s experiencing these kinds of problems.”

Verchick said the request, whether it’s accepted or not, is a milestone.

“At the very least what this shows is we have a huge gap in our federal laws and in our federal planning, because there are lots of communities that are going to be facing this kind of a problem, many of them on the coast and many of them tribal communities,” Verchick said. “And we need some kind of a federal approach, some kind of a federal policy, to address concerns like these.”

As for Romy Cadiente – he’s just hoping the answer from the White House is yes.

The request is now under review by FEMA. Newtok is hoping to get an answer before the Obama administration leaves office on Jan. 20.

Update | 3:35 p.m.

The ferry system has canceled the Aurora’s sailings on Sunday, as well.

Original story | 1:35 p.m.

The National Weather Service has Juneau under a high wind warning, with gusts expected up to 80 mph through Sunday afternoon.

The peak winds are expected Friday night and Saturday.

Sailings of the Alaska Marine Highway System’s Fairweather and Aurora ferries have been canceled today because of high winds, heavy seas and freezing spray.

Juneau’s urban avalanche advisory is reporting moderate avalanche danger. Natural and human triggered avalanches may be possible in wind-loaded areas. The advisory says to avoid spending time above the gates in the Behrends Neighborhood.

Ketchikan residents are going to be paying for this cold, dry winter.

Ketchikan Public Utilities Electric Division started supplementing the community’s hydroelectric power with more expensive diesel about a week ago. With no rain or warmer temperatures expected anytime soon, KPU officials expect to continue running those generators into the foreseeable future.

The past few winters in Ketchikan have been mild and kinda soggy. So, the lakes stayed full, and hydroelectric power flowed.

This winter? Not so much. So, KPU has fired up its backup generators

“We started last week, just before the New Year’s break for four days,” said KPU Electric Division Manager Andy Donato.

There were some partial days on diesel, then the utility stayed on hydro through the New Year’s holiday weekend, “and temperatures were low and we sucked down a lot of water, and we resumed diesel generation Tuesday.”

This weather is a little unusual.

Ketchikan doesn’t usually get long stretches of truly cold weather.

It’s not that cold, compared with other parts of Alaska, Donato said, but, “It’s cold enough that it freezes up the hillsides, the precipitation is in the frozen format, we get no inflow in the lakes, our heat loads go up and the lakes start drafting really, really fast. So, to mitigate that, we have to supplement with diesel generation.”

So, is this a normal winter issue to deal with? Or something to worry about?

“A little bit of both,” Donato said. “We’re an electrical utility, so we’re always concerned.”

“Our responsibility is to keep the lights on, regardless of the weather,” he said. “Here I am looking at a stretch of weather where there’s no relief in sight. I don’t know how long this is going to last. We’re just very fortunate to have the diesel generation that we have and the facilities and the personnel to operate and more importantly maintain them.”

Donato said it looks like KPU will be on diesel for a while, and with cold temperatures expected to continue, the demand for electricity will be high – lots of people running their heaters to stay warm.

Sometimes, when demand is high in Ketchikan, KPU can take a little excess hydropower generated by the Tyee Lake facility near Petersburg. But, it’s been cold and dry up there, too, so there isn’t any excess hydro to take.

Donato stressed that Ketchikan has plenty of diesel to take care of the community’s electrical needs, but one casualty will be the city’s holiday lights.

“It didn’t make sense that, here we are running diesel and sometime around 3:30-4, the holiday lights come on with the street lights, so yesterday we made the decision to unplug and/or pull them down,” he said.

With the utility burning diesel, KPU customers will see a diesel surcharge on their electric bills.

Oil prices are low now, so it’s not as expensive as it could be, but diesel still costs about twice as much as hydro.

And for those wondering about Ketchikan’s drinking water supply: Donato said there isn’t a shortage at Ketchikan Lakes, but KPU has cut down electric generation there to the legal minimum in order to maintain those lake levels.