Alaskan coast slammed with snow and hurricane-force winds

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- An Alaskan storm with hurricane-force winds slammed into coastal communities, and sent some residents to higher ground. Several roofs were ripped from homes and power was disrupted for many residents. The strongest storm to hit the state in four decades carried with it heavy snows and rains. The precipitation sent water levels rising late Wednesday night in Nome, causing flooding in low-lying areas, the National Weather Service said. "It's barely beginning to wind down along the coast," Stephen Kearney, a meteorologist for the Weather Service in Fairbanks, said late Wednesday night. Emergency officials warned that areas on Alaska's western coast between Norton Sound and Point Hope were vulnerable to a possible surge of sea water that could bring varying degrees of flooding to villages already soaked. However, there were no new reports of substantial damage in Nome late Wednesday night, the National Weather Service said. Flooding was reported in Point Hope, where the water came within 10 feet of the airport runway, but the community still had power, Kearney said. Earlier, the storm produced 85-mph gusts, well above hurricane force. But emergency managers said that the winds had begun to taper off and were clocked with still-potent gusts of 55 mph. The storm passed through more southern points of its path. Some villages, such as Kivalina, could be even more vulnerable with winds shifting as they head to Russia, officials said. Water reportedly reached some reached homes in at least four Native villages, including Tununak and Kipnuk, according to state emergency managers. "This is a storm of epic proportions," said meteorologist Jeff Osiensky with the National Weather Service. "We're not out of the woods with this." The last time the communities saw something similar was in November 1974, when a storm created a sea surge that measured more than 13 feet. The surge pushed beach driftwood above the level of the previous storm of its type in 1913. The weather service said "a potent upper level disturbance" rotating around the Bering Sea storm is expected to bring 3 to 8 inches of snowfall to the Anchorage area by Thursday afternoon. The service issued a winter weather advisory for Anchorage in effect until noon Thursday. Jeremy Zidek, spokesman for the state's emergency management agency, noted there have been no reports of injuries, and that damage so far has been largely limited to blown-out windows and battered roofs. Nome, Hooper Bay and Tununak reported scattered power outages. During outages, officials were able to maintain contact with communities by satellite phone and VHS radios. The highest wind gusts recorded - 89 mph - were at Wales at the western tip of the Seward Peninsula, which forms the U.S. side of the Bering Strait, said Bob Fischer, lead forecaster for the weather service in Fairbanks. In Nome - the biggest of the coastal communities with about 3,600 residents - wind gusted to 61 mph. City officials said Wednesday afternoon that they closed and barricaded streets in low-lying areas where flooding was reported and urged residents to keep clear of those areas. About 180 miles to the northeast, in Kotzebue, the regional hub for northwest Alaska villages, the storm had quieted down by 10:30 a.m. Damage so far was limited to tin roofs on homes. As of Wednesday morning, the Coast Guard had received no calls from vessels seeking help from the storm. Crab fishing season was pretty much over when the storm hit the coast.