Golovin was hurt worse than other places in the Norton Sound region by the remnants of typhoon Merbok as it swirled up through Bering Sea last weekend. Repairing the damage is going to take time — and the clock is ticking on winter’s arrival.
Community members were breaking down the piles and reassembling them into boxes for families to take home. More supplies like bottled water and clothing were accumulating in the sanctuary of the Covenant Church in the lower part of town.
A small structure that was carried away by the flood waters came to rest in the middle of road intersection, where it remained Wednesday. But the storm that slammed into the west coast of Alaska last week was without an equal — at least not in living memory here. Huge sections of the beach and banks leading up to town were eroded by the storm, imperiling some of the older structures built close to the coastline.
A refrigerated container next to the ANICA store lost power during the storm, causing frozen food to thaw and spoil. Many residents lost all of their subsistence foods put up for winter. “That’s what our ancestors taught us: to gather and subsist, put away food,” Peterson said. “That’s what we grew up on.”
“It’s devastating. People work for years. Those camps are generation-to-generation between families,” Smyth said. Katchatag was a frenetic flurry of activity Wednesday, moving supplies around the tribal hall, tidying up the kitchen, getting food ready, whatever task there was that might need doing.