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Nearly three years after Typhoon Merbok battered Western Alaska, storm debris still lingers in the 40 Alaska Native communities that were impacted. The cleanup is daunting — but local organizations are stepping up.
On a sunny day in Nome’s Safety Sound region, just east of town, people usually head to the beach or stop by the Iditarod's final checkpoint, Safety Roadhouse.
But on the first weekend of August, volunteers and members of local and state organizations walked the beach at mile post 17 with trash bags in hand — picking up what Typhoon Merbok left behind, the extratropical storm that devastated Western Alaska in 2022.
According to the Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Preparedness, Merbok affected more than 1,000 miles of Alaska’s coastline — from Nome in the northwest down to the Yukon–Kuskokwim Delta.
Nearly 30 miles of the Nome Council Road that hugs the Bering Sea coastline was impassable because of damage and debris. Kawerak, Inc. Environmental Coordinator, Vanessa Tahbone, witnessed the fallout of the violent storm.
“We knew that there was a lot of destruction and devastation that had happened, and we knew that a lot of debris had been collected in some of the high lying areas of the highest waves,” Tahbone said.
Kawerak teamed up with Zender Environmental, an Anchorage-based organization, for the cleanup.
Tahbone said it’s part of a new, multi-year effort that encompasses the communities of Brevig Mission, Teller, Shaktoolik, St. Michael, Shishmaref and Elim — while Zender will be cleaning up eight villages in the Bethel region.
“So it's over a three year process, and this year, Nome, our Nuuk Safety areas is our first actual cleanup with boots on the ground,” Tahbone said. “It's our pilot.”
Anahma Shannon is Kawerak’s Environmental Program Director. She said funding for the cleanup is from a National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) grant that was awarded to Zender Environmental this year. NFWF is a partner of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
“So we went with a statewide organization like Zender, so that both regions could get benefits,” Shannon said.
She adds that the spot along the road is their pilot site because of its close proximity to Nome. Cabins along the Nome-Council Road were swept away during Merbok. Shannon said the storm washed up freezers, fish totes and nets in the area, which is also abundant with a variety of bird species.
“Just think about the birds that we're harvesting and the eggs from the birds that we're harvesting that are ingesting microplastic,” Shannon said. “None of us want that, and so it's just a really super important place to put a lot of effort into cleaning up.”
Kawerak’s also partnered with the Village of Solomon, Nome Eskimo Community and Sitnasuak Native Corporation for the cleanup — along with volunteers from Nome.
Shannon said that the three year program will see 10 communities in the Bering Strait region receiving similar clean ups.
“This year, we're just working on two areas, Nome Safety Sound, and then the Golovin and White Mountain area,” Shannon said. “In year two, we're going to cover four more communities.”
She said the stretch from mile 17 to 26 along the Nome-Council Road, was just the beginning. Kawerak is partnering with the Village of Solomon for another cleanup Monday and will be facilitating further cleanups on the north side of Safety Sound for the week that followed.
