White Outs

not good news

not so bad

Heard the wind all night, but not until you hit the arctic entry do you see what the wind/temps brought. In the smaller apartment off to the side, the drifts got so high I would have to call Ross, fellow teacher, to help get dug out before school (25 years ago) as I couldn't open the door. The other "teacher houses" have entries facing south so the drifting isn't so bad.

Getting the girls off to work

Snowmobile and sled are getting drifted over.

Snow sets up like concrete-note hammer

Typical window covering after blizzards

Tough to get photos, but blizzard conditions were expected to come in by midnight. The blizzard arrived. Is a white-out right now. I walked over to the school this morning and, though wind and snow are fierce, the temperature is much warmer as the wind is from the south. Snow even seems wetter. All reminds me of a lion, all the descriptors. Roaring winds, fierce conditions, biting cold. Looking out the window the snow is blowing horizontal. Drifts are getting higher as the snow meets an obstacle.

The region lost two people in the storm. One was heading with a partner to the coast by snowmobile and was separated. The partner made it, but she never showed up in Toksook Bay. They found her body later with a search crew. Same story with someone coming in from the coast, Tununak to Nunapitchuk. The blizzard blew in, and he made it to a few miles west of Nunap. Again, they were able to find the body.