After flood, Kotzebue residents take stock of damaged homes and property, and take care of one another

KOTZEBUE — Pushing aside debris, totes and trash, Minnie Norton slowly walked on the Kotzebue Sound beach toward what remained of her house Saturday. A few days after waves had torn the shore apart, the blue structure slouched toward the water, surrounded by objects the ocean spit back out: pieces of wood, a brand-new washer, totes with soaked clothes, Norton’s favorite chair.

“Oh, my poor house,” she sighed.

A powerful fall storm that destroyed homes and roads in the community of Kotzebue earlier in the week was especially devastating for structures along the beach — like the houses on Shore Avenue where Norton and her neighbors lived. After the storm, at least 30 houses still needed repairs, cleanup was ongoing, and the city’s residents grappled with the need to fix snowmachines, keep their soaked houses warm and prepare for future emergencies.

On the morning of the flood, Norton got up around 9 a.m. and started to make breakfast in her house overlooking Kotzebue Sound.

“I was making pancakes,” she said. “And I look out the window, and I see a house by my window — my neighbor’s shed!”

Norton, 65, watched the water pushing the shed toward her house. Then she saw various objects — fishing nets, gas cans, helmets, lots of foam — washed up next, in quantities large enough for a yard sale, she joked. As the morning went on, the flood started to eat away at the foundation under her house, so she and her nephew, who was staying with her that day, began to worry.

“The water was all around,” Norton said. “I said, ‘Maybe we’re gonna have our last breakfast in here. You better have breakfast with me before our house falls.’ And it sure did. I should not have said that!”

Norton’s husband, James, who is 76, was away in Anchorage for medical appointments. On Tuesday morning, he was on the phone with his wife, trying to convince her to leave. But moisture and low temperatures made the front door swell and freeze, trapping Minnie Norton inside. James Norton called emergency responders.

Meanwhile, the water started pushing against the Nortons’ deck. Then the deck collapsed into Kotzebue Sound. Then went their Arctic entry.

Around 11 a.m., the Kotzebue Fire Department helped Minnie Norton escape from her collapsing house through her bedroom window. As she climbed out, responders held a stretcher for her and took her to a safe place — first her friend’s house, then the shelter, then the hotel.

She was the first of the 80 people who ended up evacuating from their homes.

Helping each other rebuild

Chad Yenne was among the people who went to Norton’s house to save some of her belongings while the storm was still raging.

“I just thought, it could have been my grandparents, so I had to help,” he said. “We had to help.”

Driving loaders rescuing neighbors from homes surrounded by water, helping recover boats and freezers from flooded yards, and offering space to dry out vehicles, Kotzebue residents were stepping up to support one another during and after the storm.

“We have a lot of heroes in town who came to help others in dire need,” resident Chester Ballot said.

On Friday, Kotzebue — home to around 3,000 residents, according to the 2020 census — stood almost dry and clean. The road near Crowley Fuel that had been destroyed by the storm was mostly rebuilt with new gravel. Debris and trash that the water had swept from people’s yards was gathered in organized piles along Shore Avenue.

Two city employees were walking along the Kotzebue Boat Harbor counting dock pieces that floated away during the storm. The city has been working to bring those pieces back to the storage location.

“I counted 34,” Public Works Operator John Garoutte said. “We’re only missing 15.”

The city and Drake’s Construction were also working to repair the sewer lagoon damaged during the storm, said Sam Camp, the city’s planning director.

Personnel from multiple state agencies have been trickling into town after the airport reopened Wednesday. Ten National Guard members were starting to work on large debris cleanup in public areas and Front Street and either removing or repairing homes that were severely damaged, said Saima Chase, tribal emergency manager at the Native Village of Kotzebue. About 10 U.S. Forest Service employees were tackling personal debris cleanup, going into people’s yards, she said.

“Right now, our main focus is getting people back into their homes or figuring out longer-term solutions for people who can’t return to their homes,” Chase said, “and also cleaning up some of that debris within their home or around their homes so that it’s more accessible for ambulances, fire, stuff like that.”

The integrity of homes

While only a few houses were irreparable after the flood, more than 30 had damage, including foundation issues, ripped-off skirting, interior water damage and, most prominently, soaked insulation, Camp said. Repairs are costly and challenging in a place with limited materials and manpower, Chase said.

Aletha Duchene, whose house was surrounded by water, said her family will have to redo the insulation throughout their whole house.

“The realization kind of hit us later because the first emotion was, ‘Gosh, our house is standing.’ ... It’s livable. We don’t have to find another place, which in Kotzebue is so challenging,” she said. “What we noticed yesterday (was that) the house was really cold, and it’s not even that cold yet.”

Going into the winter, ruined insulation means increased heating costs, said Aniġayu Paulette Schuerch, grant writer and manager for the American Rescue Plan Act funds at the village.

“Right now we’re paying $9 a gallon for diesel fuel, home heating fuel, and pretty soon it’s gonna add up more because there’s gonna be no heat, or you’re gonna lose a lot of heat,” Schuerch said.

Snogos and subsistence

Saltwater is an issue when it comes in contact with engines, and after the flood, many Kotzebue residents were worried about their snowmachines and four-wheelers, crucial for getting around town, hunting and getting wood outside of the community.

“Water came up so high, so some people were not prepared. A lot of people probably have water damage to their vehicles,” Matt Bergen said. “And that’s what you need to get out to the country.”

The weather event also brought uncertainty about the fish camps located outside of Kotzebue. With water starting to freeze — not suitable for boats anymore, and not ready for snowmachines yet — it was impossible for most residents to get to the camps, and many were worried about the damage to their cabins, Bergen said.

Ashley Hansen said that her husband’s freezers and trapping and hunting tools stored in a shed outside got wet. The family also lost a big portion of their firewood.

“To go get wood here, because there’s no trees, we got to drive our snowmachines for 30 miles,” Hansen said. “That’s gas and time and energy.”

For Chase, who was still pumping water from her yard Friday, one of the biggest losses was her traditional sauna and her chickens. Only one of the chickens survived.

“She jumped down like, it’s finally safe,” Chase said about the surviving chicken named Pumpkin. “I didn’t know she was still alive.”

Chase said on Facebook that her “family depends on having the chickens to supplement (their) fridge and to be more self-sustainable during times when planes aren’t landing.”

Seth Kantner, who was away from town during the flood, was counting losses on Friday after his Kotzebue cabin got 9 inches of water.

“It all flooded without me here to pick up my tools and snowmobiles and everything else,” he said.

Kantner was happy that his caribou hides and musk ox skins were just about an inch above the water, but several of his freezers, full of hard-earned cranberries, caribou, musk ox, muktuk and salmon, broke. One of them floated into the yard despite being loaded with food supplies. When Kantner came back to town, his first task was to get the freezers working again.

Kantner said he was also worried about his two snowmachines stored in a Conex that flooded with 20 inches of water. He said he hadn’t started them yet but worried that because the water was salty, his power tools and vehicles might work at first but break soon. On Friday afternoon, Kantner was heading outside to cut some wood, but his chain saws were still soaked.

“It’s pretty immediate effects on staying warm and protecting your food and finding more wood and food this winter,” Kantner said.

Planning for future emergencies

While fall storms and floods are common occurrences in Kotzebue, many longtime residents were caught off guard by the intensity of this one and said they had never seen a storm bring water so high up and so far inland, even when the remnants of Typhoon Merbok hit the coast in fall 2022.

“They never get this wild,” Minnie Norton said.

Ballot, 80, has lived most of his life in Kotzebue and watched the storm unfold from his house on Front Street.

“It was scary. ... If we didn’t have the seawall there, it would come up to our house. We really would have lost a lot more of the Front Street housing,” he said. “We were very lucky.”

This storm marked the first time water breached the seawall, local officials had said.

“I don’t think it’s going to be the last time,” Chase said. “Kotzebue’s Inupiaq name is Kikiktagruk, which means ‘almost an island.’ And literally, during that storm, we probably were an island. That’s scary.”

The water flooded one of the main roads leading to the hills, the only higher ground around Kotzebue, bringing questions about the community’s strategy for future emergencies and the need to raise the road, Chase said.

“If you ever have to evacuate, that’s the only highest spot we have — to the hills,” Alice Sheldon said. On Tuesday, “both roads were flooded, so nobody would be able to go to the hills unless you had a boat.”

Sheldon said that the city should also work on its flood zones.

“The city should consider putting gravel pads back here higher,” she said. “If they could, you know, help us, people that are in the flood zone already, by raising up our houses or putting more gravel back here, that would really help.”

Projects to prevent flooding by the lagoon in the airport area and mitigate erosion projects on the other side of town also gained new urgency, Chase said.

“It really does show that there are low-lying areas of town where we need to be prepared. Make sure that you have a bag ready to go in case there’s an emergency — fire, flood or otherwise,” said Kotzebue state Rep. Thomas Baker, also a second lieutenant with the Alaska State Defense Force, who was visiting the most affected houses Saturday. “It’s definitely something the community as a whole needs to look at, like a lot of Alaska communities on the coast, and just understanding that with climate change, with all of the things happening, we need to be aware of what’s going to happen, what could happen, so we can be prepared for it.”

Kris Rose, who works at the Kotzebue Fire Department, said that emergencies, whether they are related to infrastructure, weather or people, always bring unity to Kotzebue.

“Kotzebue is sort of used to bad weather, and I think that people here do really well in emergencies and in crisis, and everyone comes together. And I think that’s why people love living here, because the community is so strong and get through stuff, hard stuff like this together,” he said. “I don’t think bad stuff makes people here want to move more. I think it reminds us that we’re all working together and all on the same side.”

Several days after the evacuation, Minnie Norton was at the hotel, reunited with her husband. She had trouble walking after the experience and sat in a wheelchair. The couple, both originally from Noatak, have lived together in Kotzebue for over 30 years.

They reminisced about the house that they had lived in since 2002. While some things were removed from the property by their friends and family, other things were lost. Pictures they had on the walls. Furniture, electronics, appliances, most of the possessions they acquired to make the house livable, Minnie Norton said.

“These things, when we lose them, they are replaceable,” James Norton said. “If we lose each other, we can’t be replaced.”