We made it through the night. Sammy, Michael, and I played around in the windy gusts and dove into snowbanks. Other than a door pushing us into the railing by the school while we were trying to close it, there wasn't as much excitement as we anticipated. There were strong winds and times when visibility was limited to about 10 feet in front of you, but it really wasn't terrible. This morning on the way to school there was part of the powerline snapped and on the ground.
In bush Alaska do we ever cancel school? Nope. Not here. We actually had fairly normal attendance, too. A couple students who live across the slough had troubles getting here since they can't cross by snowmachine or boat, but that is normal for this time of year.
The village next to us, Nunam Iqua, had staff camped out in the school overnight to escape some flooding since they're close to the sea and on even lower ground than us. (Hard to imagine when I'm pretty sure our highest ground is about 6 ft.) They did end up evacuating some people from Nunam and Kotlik which are close to us. On a picture from a phone, I saw that Scammon Bay had some pretty intense flooding. I heard from a student here that Stebbins has a couple houses under water.
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| Our kitchen window, facing East |
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| Hard to see the gusts of wind |
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| Our door before going to bed last night |
After school today, I went for a walk down to the slough not expecting much with the tides. I was surprised to see that my favorite tree that lays sideways on the ground was completely covered and the water was up quite a ways on the shore. I decided to check out a few other areas including the place where the barge docks, which I had heard had water levels up just one foot away from the top of the bank. I can only estimate, but instead of the tide rising 8-10 feet above normal tide level, I'd say it rose about 4-6 feet above.
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| Sammy doing her new leisurely activity of sitting in the bank |
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| At the dock, the tide pushed large chunks towards the shore |
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| BEFORE: Me, standing on the shore shooting towards the bank |
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| NOW: The bank is filled with water, ice, and snow |
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| BEFORE: I was "surfing" on this board on the edge of the bank |
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| NOW: This is the same board, but the tide is high |
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| Midtown, where the barge docks |
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| The tide is right up to the shore right now |
