Typhoon Merbok Disaster Emergency Recovery Efforts
Extreme storm events, such as Extratropical-Typhoon Merbok that hit the coast of Western Alaska in September 2022, are stark reminders of the devastating impacts coastal storms can have on Alaska Native community’s livelihoods and infrastructure.
A chronic lack of environmental monitoring and technical assistance in rural Alaska present major barriers to communities affected by Typhoon Merbok. Communities need information that can guide 1) rebuilding decisions, whilst considering the frequency and magnitude of extreme weather events likely to occur over the coming decades, and 2) preparedness of rapidly approaching weather events akin to Typhoon Merbok.
To address these issues, this project will result in:
1) permanent markers commemorating Merbok flood elevations,
2) interactive mapping tools of historical shoreline change and future flood and erosion hazards/risks under auspices of a changing climate, and
3) real-time coastal monitoring and forecasting of flood hazards.
This work is being done in collaboration with federal, state, and local agencies. Engagement with information end-users is central to the work and is being achieved through in-person and virtual workshops.
Delivering Actionable Science to Support Recovery and Planning
In collaboration with State and Federal Agencies, the U.S. Geological Survey is developing critical tools for more than 20 communities along the west and north coasts of Alaska:
- Long-range planning tool: future flood and erosion hazard maps indicating potential hazard exposure out to the year 2050 considering changes in the climate and sea levels.
- Real-time forecasting tool: flood and erosion hazard maps from storms forecast 6 days ahead of potential impact.
- Shoreline mapping tools: Interactive mapping tools for viewing and accessing regularly updated data coastline features (e.g., shorelines, bluff edges).
Future coastal hazards and risk under a changing climate (Long-range planning)
- Modeled and mapped flood and erosion hazards include changing oceanic conditions and sea level rise out to the year 2050 and beyond.
- Mapping exposure risk for communities within the future hazard zones with U.S. Census metrics, infrastructure data layers, and first-finished-floor elevations.
- Publicly available and accessible products are intended to inform adaptation needs, prioritization efforts, and guide relocation decisions.
Forecasts of coastal hazards from an approaching storm (Emergency Preparedness/Response)
- Mapped flood and erosion forecasts for approaching storms will improve National Weather Service forecasts and better support emergency response preparations.
-
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) forecasted waves, storm surge, and tides are being used to develop 6-hour interval predictions of flooding and erosion, starting 6 days before impact of approaching coastal storms.
-
A system for forecasting erosion hot-spots, flood extents, depths, and currents is being developed in close collaboration with the National Weather Service and Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys.
-
The system is an expansion that builds from the current USGS Total Water Level and Coastal Change Forecast Viewer.
Foundational data: Improving baseline and real-time coastal information
A suite of baseline and real-time data sets are being developed to support Typhoon Merbok Disaster Emergency Recovery Efforts. Coastal hazard projections, risk assessments, and forecasts of potential impacts from approaching storms rely on the integration of fundamental baseline data and real-time information.
-
Baseline data, like elevations of the ground or infrastructure, provides the foundation for evaluating the exposure and vulnerability of a community to flooding or erosion.
-
Real-time observations of nearshore ocean conditions, such as water levels, wave heights, wind speeds, and nearshore sea-ice help inform weather forecasts, provide input data for validating models, and improves forecasts for emergency preparedness and response.
-
Knowledge about historical storm impacts and coastal behavior, as well as recent measurements of coastal erosion and beach recovery in response to extreme storms, helps to identify likely impacts from future storms.
Elevation maps and community infrastructure
- USGS 3D Elevation Program, in cooperation with NOAA’s National Geodetic Survey, will acquire new high resolution topographic lidar and imagery along the Western Alaska coastline in 2024-2025. More information is available here.
- First floor elevations of buildings and other critical infrastructure will be measured in coastal communities affected by Merbok. This information can be used to support the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) impact assessment of storms and cost analyses of future flooding or erosion hazards.
Real-time observations of nearshore ocean conditions
- Real-time water level stations will be installed in 5-6 locations beginning in 2024. These use Global Navigation Satellite Systems Reflectometry technology and will be managed long-term by NOAA's Office for Coastal Management. Water level sensors are used to validate forecasts and provide information on daily water levels and flood magnitudes.
- Coastal observing web cameras (CoastCams) will be installed in 3-5 communities to collect photographs and video of the coast and nearshore waters. Temporary buoys measuring wave heights, temperatures, and wind speeds, will be co-located with the CoastCams. Data from the CoastCams and buoys will be used to validate flood models and assist the National Weather Service to forecast and provide flood warnings.
Coastal erosion and recovery in response to extreme storms
- CoastCams will be used for monitoring and measuring coastal change and correlated with nearshore buoy information to improve projections of coastal change.
- Satellite imagery will be used to map shorelines and bluffs along the coast of Alaska and within communities to quantify rates and trends of coastal erosion, document near-real-time response to storms, and improve projections of future coastal change.
User engagement to ensure delivery of actionable products
- Actionable products must be both useful and useable. In our context, useful means they meet a specific decision-making need for long-range planning or emergency preparedness/response. Usable means they are convenient and practicable, easily fitting in to a user’s existing workflow.
- Engagement with community representatives (city, tribe, Alaska Native corporation), organizations that provide communities with technical support for planning and emergency response, as well as State and Federal agency representatives is being undertaken to ensure delivery of actionable products.
- The product line will include digital hazard maps, web-based tools, and possibly a smartphone application by mid-2026.
Alaska Flood Staffs
USGS CoastCams
Coastal Climate Impacts
Climate impacts to Arctic coasts
Coastal Change in Arctic Alaska
The Arctic region is warming faster than anywhere else in the nation. Understanding the rates and causes of coastal change in Alaska is needed to identify and mitigate hazards that might affect people and animals that call Alaska home.
Extreme storm events, such as Extratropical-Typhoon Merbok that hit the coast of Western Alaska in September 2022, are stark reminders of the devastating impacts coastal storms can have on Alaska Native community’s livelihoods and infrastructure.
A chronic lack of environmental monitoring and technical assistance in rural Alaska present major barriers to communities affected by Typhoon Merbok. Communities need information that can guide 1) rebuilding decisions, whilst considering the frequency and magnitude of extreme weather events likely to occur over the coming decades, and 2) preparedness of rapidly approaching weather events akin to Typhoon Merbok.
To address these issues, this project will result in:
1) permanent markers commemorating Merbok flood elevations,
2) interactive mapping tools of historical shoreline change and future flood and erosion hazards/risks under auspices of a changing climate, and
3) real-time coastal monitoring and forecasting of flood hazards.
This work is being done in collaboration with federal, state, and local agencies. Engagement with information end-users is central to the work and is being achieved through in-person and virtual workshops.
Delivering Actionable Science to Support Recovery and Planning
In collaboration with State and Federal Agencies, the U.S. Geological Survey is developing critical tools for more than 20 communities along the west and north coasts of Alaska:
- Long-range planning tool: future flood and erosion hazard maps indicating potential hazard exposure out to the year 2050 considering changes in the climate and sea levels.
- Real-time forecasting tool: flood and erosion hazard maps from storms forecast 6 days ahead of potential impact.
- Shoreline mapping tools: Interactive mapping tools for viewing and accessing regularly updated data coastline features (e.g., shorelines, bluff edges).
Future coastal hazards and risk under a changing climate (Long-range planning)
- Modeled and mapped flood and erosion hazards include changing oceanic conditions and sea level rise out to the year 2050 and beyond.
- Mapping exposure risk for communities within the future hazard zones with U.S. Census metrics, infrastructure data layers, and first-finished-floor elevations.
- Publicly available and accessible products are intended to inform adaptation needs, prioritization efforts, and guide relocation decisions.
Forecasts of coastal hazards from an approaching storm (Emergency Preparedness/Response)
- Mapped flood and erosion forecasts for approaching storms will improve National Weather Service forecasts and better support emergency response preparations.
-
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) forecasted waves, storm surge, and tides are being used to develop 6-hour interval predictions of flooding and erosion, starting 6 days before impact of approaching coastal storms.
-
A system for forecasting erosion hot-spots, flood extents, depths, and currents is being developed in close collaboration with the National Weather Service and Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys.
-
The system is an expansion that builds from the current USGS Total Water Level and Coastal Change Forecast Viewer.
Foundational data: Improving baseline and real-time coastal information
A suite of baseline and real-time data sets are being developed to support Typhoon Merbok Disaster Emergency Recovery Efforts. Coastal hazard projections, risk assessments, and forecasts of potential impacts from approaching storms rely on the integration of fundamental baseline data and real-time information.
-
Baseline data, like elevations of the ground or infrastructure, provides the foundation for evaluating the exposure and vulnerability of a community to flooding or erosion.
-
Real-time observations of nearshore ocean conditions, such as water levels, wave heights, wind speeds, and nearshore sea-ice help inform weather forecasts, provide input data for validating models, and improves forecasts for emergency preparedness and response.
-
Knowledge about historical storm impacts and coastal behavior, as well as recent measurements of coastal erosion and beach recovery in response to extreme storms, helps to identify likely impacts from future storms.
Elevation maps and community infrastructure
- USGS 3D Elevation Program, in cooperation with NOAA’s National Geodetic Survey, will acquire new high resolution topographic lidar and imagery along the Western Alaska coastline in 2024-2025. More information is available here.
- First floor elevations of buildings and other critical infrastructure will be measured in coastal communities affected by Merbok. This information can be used to support the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) impact assessment of storms and cost analyses of future flooding or erosion hazards.
Real-time observations of nearshore ocean conditions
- Real-time water level stations will be installed in 5-6 locations beginning in 2024. These use Global Navigation Satellite Systems Reflectometry technology and will be managed long-term by NOAA's Office for Coastal Management. Water level sensors are used to validate forecasts and provide information on daily water levels and flood magnitudes.
- Coastal observing web cameras (CoastCams) will be installed in 3-5 communities to collect photographs and video of the coast and nearshore waters. Temporary buoys measuring wave heights, temperatures, and wind speeds, will be co-located with the CoastCams. Data from the CoastCams and buoys will be used to validate flood models and assist the National Weather Service to forecast and provide flood warnings.
Coastal erosion and recovery in response to extreme storms
- CoastCams will be used for monitoring and measuring coastal change and correlated with nearshore buoy information to improve projections of coastal change.
- Satellite imagery will be used to map shorelines and bluffs along the coast of Alaska and within communities to quantify rates and trends of coastal erosion, document near-real-time response to storms, and improve projections of future coastal change.
User engagement to ensure delivery of actionable products
- Actionable products must be both useful and useable. In our context, useful means they meet a specific decision-making need for long-range planning or emergency preparedness/response. Usable means they are convenient and practicable, easily fitting in to a user’s existing workflow.
- Engagement with community representatives (city, tribe, Alaska Native corporation), organizations that provide communities with technical support for planning and emergency response, as well as State and Federal agency representatives is being undertaken to ensure delivery of actionable products.
- The product line will include digital hazard maps, web-based tools, and possibly a smartphone application by mid-2026.
Alaska Flood Staffs
USGS CoastCams
Coastal Climate Impacts
Climate impacts to Arctic coasts
Coastal Change in Arctic Alaska
The Arctic region is warming faster than anywhere else in the nation. Understanding the rates and causes of coastal change in Alaska is needed to identify and mitigate hazards that might affect people and animals that call Alaska home.