Birthday and a Snowicane

November 8, 2011:  Nathan's 27th birthday and Megan's 25th birthday.
We closed Head Start at 12 pm on Tuesday, Nov. 8, and sent them home due to an intense storm making its way through the Bering Strait.  This storm was rated by the National Weather Service as the equivalent of a Category 3 hurricane.  With the extra four hours at home, I began preparations for the storm-- filling up containers of water, turning up the thermostat s around the house, etc--and for our birthday celebration.  We  invited over many of the teacher for pizza and games.  As the day wore on and the wind grew stronger, several of the teacher let me know they would not be able to come due to the storm.  We had four of our friends come over for pizza that evening.

Just like Lisa, I prepared my toppings ahead of time and arranged them neatly on the counter.  I made the dough ahead of time also and let it rise for two hours in our back room (which stays at 85 degrees from the boiler).

The first pizza was Pepperoni (with chilies, with olives, and with chilies and olives).

The second pizza was the Barbecue Chicken Pizza.

As the night wore on the wind continued to intensify.  The wind was blowing so hard that the house vibrated.  Nathan stayed up long into the night and said that the storm seemed to peak around 1am.  The house was shaking and creaking.  The next day school was cancelled.  The storm seemed to have calmed so Nathan and I went for a walk that afternoon to look at the flooding on the St. Michael Bay beach (this is the beach closest to our house).

St. Michael Bay Beach.  The water looks really rough in this picture, but it was more like a Slushie.  The water would freeze then break up in the wind, then freeze, etc.  The ice was pushed into the bank.

This picture gives you an idea of how big the beach was before the water rose.    The hills that line the beach are about 15 feet high.

Looking west down St. Michael Bay beach.  In the foreground is the roof of a fish-drying rack/shack.
Past that are some post-top sticking up in the ice...this was the large dock that goes into the bay.  You can see the barge on the far right side of the picture.  Behind that are three buildings surrounded by ice.  I think these are fishing shacks not houses that flooded.

This picture shows how close the water came to the houses at this part of St. Michael.  They just had a few feet to spare.  This is a good picture of the ice on the bay. 

This was taken tonight,  Nov. 12, around 5pm at the snow that accumulated that day.  It snowed all day.  There are two snow machines in front of the house that are covered in snow now.

Looking toward the mountain range that the snow is blocking.  If you look closely above the shrubs, you can see a small  part of the water that is still moving) it looks dark.  The rest of the water is frozen and under a few inches of snow.  We had about 3 inches accumulate on our porch.  It is very windy in St. Michael, so when it snows the wind will blow it into drifts.  There is a drift behind our house that is three feet deep.  

Thanks for your prayers for the people of the Bering Strait and Western Alaska.