North of 60 Mining News - The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North

Kivalina residents chased away by flood warnings began trickling back home early Sept. 14 after the season's first storm died down, ending its assault on a frail seawall guarding the northwest coastal village.

Wave action from the storm began eroding the shoreline, threatening to wash away parts of the village, which is located about 80 miles north of Kotzebue near the Red Dog Mine and creating the potential for an oil spill from the Alaska Village Electrical Cooperative fuel tank farm.

About 85 percent of Kivalina's 330 residents fled the village late Sept. 12 and early Sept. 13 as high winds whipped the Chukchi Sea and sent waves crashing onto the narrow barrier reef island where Kivalina is located. They sought refuge at Red Dog or in Kotzebue. Only 46 people remained in town late Sept. 13.

The seawall was breached that evening, according to Kivalina officials, and the storm ate about 10 feet of beach in a place that's been hit hard by erosion in recent years. About 100-110 feet of the town's 600-foot beachfront have disappeared into the ocean in the past four or five years, making Kivalina one of coastal Alaska's most imperiled villages due to erosion.

The U.S. Coast Guard monitored the fuel facilities in the village, while the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers stepped up its ongoing assistance to the village, which is working to maintain a seawall along the shore.

The Corps had 600 super sacks either already in Kotzebue or on the way to Kivalina when the storm hit, Corps spokeswoman Patricia L. Richardson said Sept. 19. The Corps also ordered another 400 super sacks from Alaska Interstate Construction to help Kivalina in restoring the seawall. Each sack holds about 3,200 pounds of sand or gravel.

The Anchorage Daily News contributed to this report