(Los Angeles) A storm of rare power is hitting western Alaska, causing huge waves and flooding that have washed away homes, the US Weather Services (NWS) said on Saturday.
Posted at 5:49 p.m.
“The remains of the typhoon Merbok gonna hit western alaska […] over the weekend, with extreme surf, hurricane-force wind gusts, coastal erosion, and heavy rain,” they tweeted.
“The floods will get worse,” they added.
“This is hands down the strongest storm this early in the fall that we’ve seen in the Bering Sea in the past 50 years,” University of Alaska climate scientist Rick Thoman told AFP.
In the coastal village of Golovin, “water surrounds the school, houses are flooded, at least two houses are floating,” described municipal services in Fairbanks, Alaska’s second-largest city.
PHOTO PEGGY FAGERSTROM, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Residents of Nome try to go about their business as the storm dumps large amounts of water.
Images posted on social media show extensive damage. CNN released a video showing a house floating on a river before getting stuck under a bridge.
The NWS describes “very angry seas” along the coast around Nome, with 3.3 meter waves.
Gusts of up to 145 km / h have been recorded, according to the NWS, which predicts even stronger ones.
The flood alert remains in effect until 10 p.m. Saturday (2 a.m. Sunday ET) in southern coastal areas and until 8:30 a.m. Sunday in northern areas, where the storm is heading, the services said. weather on Facebook.