Tuesday night Kotlik was slammed with hurricane-force winds beginning about three in the afternoon, which lasted until well into the night. School let out an hour early so that kids could get home safely in advance of the storm, and Brandy and the girls and I decided that we would try to make our trek to the post office despite the winds. We figured the worst of the storm would not arrive until later, so we thought all would be well. We were wrong. We made it just a few steps on the boardwalk before giving up. It felt as though the winds would blow us right off the boardwalk, so Brandy and I looked at one another at almost exactly the same moment and without even having to exchange words — as though the howling winds would have allowed us to ear one another anyway — we turned and immediately just headed home. I took Koda by the hand; Brandy took Ryan by the hand and we fought our way to our door.
That night the winds just raged. Our whole house shook in the storm. Our bed just shook the whole night, making sleep almost impossible. Ryan and Koda both slept on our floor. We have a shelf in our bedroom with a box of books stored on it. The rattling from the shelf was so loud at one point in the night, that I got up and took it down.
We survived the night, and I called Jerry, the principal, in the morning to see if school would be canceled. At first, he had decided to cancel school, but changed his mind less than an hour later and decided instead to delay the start of school until 10:30 (instead of 8:50).
As the school day passed, the waters from the river began to rise. We got news from people coming to the school that many could no longer get in and out of their houses because of waist-deep frigid waters. The houses here are built for flooding, supported by stilts meant to keep them above flood levels. Its not clear yet whether any homes have been damaged. In the meantime, though, the school has become an emergency shelter. Families are staying in the gym and commons area, using wrestling mats to sleep on. Elders are staying in classroom 152. Teachers were assigned shifts through the night to supervise. Brandy drew a 9pm to midnight shift, and I took a midnight to 2am shift.
We haven’t had much sleep the past two days, and we are tired, but also safe. Many other parts of Western Alaska took a much worse beating from this storm than us. Over all, it appears as though things may not be that bad long term. We’ll see what the flooding looks like today as light comes over the next hour.
