Nome-ward Bound!: Nov 14, 2011

Our forecast before the storm...Nome is dead center!

My week started off with an invitation to hike out to and explore dredge #5, part of a seven dredge fleet that cut through the land in the hopes of finding gold. This particular dredge is much bigger than the others I’ve seen, and is open to exploration. We climbed inside to investigate, and what we found was surreal. Tattered work clothes hung in the tipped over lockers, vintage cans of coke littered the floor, and old work gloves lay beside levers, huge gear wheels, and other mechanisms. It was fascinating to see the dredge buckets that decorate our streets (and serve as flower pots) in their intended form. I can only imagine how this whole thing operated when it was functional, and it looks as if the folks that ran it just up and left once the gold was gone. Pretty interesting piece of history, I must say. This little adventure served as the “calm before the storm”.

On Monday our newest group of high schoolers arrived, ready to get instruction in welding, native arts, and driver’s education. It’s quite a small group (only 14), as basketball, volleyball, and wrestling are kicking into high gear and students are busy elsewhere. Just as we settled in, Nome was hit with the biggest storm it has seen since 1974 on Tuesday. What I experienced cannot be called a hurricane due to where the winds originated, but it has been classified as a polar cyclone. My apartment is located just three streets away from the ocean, but I weathered the storm at school. In the past I have worn my pajamas inside out, flushed an ice cube down the toilet, and the whole bit hoping my silly superstitions would bring on a snow day. This year I hoped against all reason that the impending storm was exaggerated and that it would blow out to sea. Needless to say, my hoping did not win out, nor did I get a day off of work to drink hot cocoa and read my book. When students are here, come hell or high water (and it was rising fast) you’ve got to make it in for work.

New group! What they lack in numbers, they made up for in enthusiasm!

The polar cyclone from above

As the storm was picking up outside my window, I packed my suitcase with clothes and food to last me a couple days. I knew once I got to work, I was most likely going to be stuck for the duration. And to be honest, it was quite possibly the safest location I could be, due to the fact that it’s situated 5 miles outside of town away from the rising ocean. Thus commenced the most intense drive I have ever experienced; I’m officially an ice road trucker. The roads looked like mirrors they were so icy, and the strong gusts of wind not only caused momentary and complete white-outs, but pushed me into the other lane as if I were a toy truck. I may have been shaking like a chihuahua but gosh darn it, I made it. So began my 33-hour workday. My time with the students ran just as it always does, with a few notable exceptions. I had to strategically place towels in doorways, as snow began accumulating on the kitchen floor. In taking out the garbage, the wind caught inside the bag and I was dragged across the ice and picked up into the air for a moment as it was ripped out of my hands. I watched as the big window in the living room visibly buckled inward with the crazy gusts of wind (which reached a record high of 71 miles per hour). Let’s just say that the newly installed wind turbine is already proving its value.

This may not look like much, but it took quite some oomph to get this door open!

The snowdrifts were almost as high as the building in some places

We use heavy machines to clear away our snow; plow operators are heroes in Nome!

Saw this on my way into work; the waves cranking up!

I’ve experienced winter storms before, but this was altogether alarming. The snow is so dry and the winds are so strong that snow doesn’t simply fall; it blows across sideways at a stinging speed, accumulating into drifts nearly as tall as the buildings they form against. The storm reached its peak just as I was scheduled to go home, so instead I chose a bed (thankfully there were plenty to choose from due to the low enrollment) and tried to fall asleep to the sounds of the groaning building, battered metal roof, and howling winds. I will say this; the winds are quite scary, but the noises they make rushing through the mountains and buildings is quite beautiful, sounding similar to a Paul Bunyan sized pipe organ. Regardless, I didn’t get much sleep.

The storm was still going strong in the morning, and it began to take on the flavor of a tropical storm; the temperature had risen to above 32 degrees (the warmest it’s been in quite some time), and the snow started to melt, and refreeze. We are down one teacher this session (lucky duck is in Mexico!), our director was out of town for business, and the roads were treacherous, limiting the travel of the two other teachers on duty. Basically, I was going nowhere. The conditions in the surrounding villages were just as severe, so I made sure all students got to call home (if their village’s cell service hadn’t already been knocked out), and all in all we were safe, we were in contact with the outside world, and we were prepared for whatever might come next. I feel as though I’ve gone into enough ugly detail, so let’s just say my workday continued until 11pm Wednesday night, when I could finally go home and decompress. And attempt to get some sleep before working the rest of the week. No rest for the weary, and no personal days for me!

I spent the duration of the storm outside of town at the school, but I wanted to include some pictures taken by Nome locals to get the point across that this was no lilly-dippin’ powder puff snowfall. People living on the streets closest to the water were evacuated to the rec center and churches, which functioned as emergency shelters. Siding from homes and metal roofing was torn off and blown around, severing power lines that not only knocked out power, but created downed and live wires in the streets. The ocean rose well above the seawall (25’ higher than usual) and flooded the edges of town, and the merciless waves catapulted fist-sized rocks and logs with a 2’ diameter into the road. Thankfully all of the advanced warnings and preparations prevented any loss of life, and limited the loss of property. All I know is that I will never complain about a New York winter storm again!