Gusts up to 80 mph as well as storm surge will test towns
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© GOES Satellite/NOAA
A rapidly intensifying storm was approaching the west coast of Alaska on Tuesday and could become "one of the worst on record" for the region, the National Weather Service said in an alert.

The alert, issued by the NWS in Fairbanks, said the "extremely dangerous" storm would lash coastal areas from Tuesday night into Wednesday. It was expected to be just west of the Bering Strait by Tuesday night and then move into the southern Chukchi Sea on Wednesday.

The storm will likely be "life-threatening ... one of the worst on record," the service said.

"Essentially the entire west coast of Alaska is going to see blizzard and winter conditions: heavy snow, poor visibility, high winds," Bob Fischer, lead NWS forecaster in Alaska, told alaskadispatch.com.

Several coastal towns were threatened, including Kivalina, whose 400 residents live on a spit of land jutting into the Chukchi Sea. Reduced sea ice levels there in recent years have meant more shoreline erosion from storms.

A rock wall built recently has not yet been tested by a big storm, but Mayor Thomas Hanifan Jr. told the Fairbanks News-Miner that "I'm fully confident it will hold."

He added that residents would take shelter at the local school, the highest point in town, should the storm cause a flood surge. "We are making sure anything that is loose is being tied down," he added. "There's not much we can do."

Storm surges were expected to cause tides of 8 to 10 feet above normal along the west coast from Cape Romanzof North to the Bering Strait including Saint Lawrence Island and Little Diomede, causing flooding.

"All residents should take action now to prepare for the strong winds and coastal [flooding]," it added. It advised people living along the coast from Cape Romanzof to the Bering Strait and from Cape Krusenstern to Point Hope to prepare for floods and beach erosion.

The alert said "severe beach erosion is expected" in many parts and that areas containing ice may see ice pushed onshore.

Southeast winds of 50 to 70 mph were expected along the coast beginning Tuesday night and into Wednesday, with gusts reaching 80 mph along parts of the Chukchi Sea, Bering Strait and Saint Lawrence Island coasts.