Bering Sea Superstorm Slamming West Alaska

The National Weather Service is reporting an event billed as “The Bering Sea Superstorm” is striking the coast of Alaska.

The storm is “punishing the west Alaska coast with hurricane-force winds, destructive waves and surge, severe erosion and blowing snow,” NWS states. “The storm will continue to unleash its fury for the better part of Wednesday.”

In addition to widespread outages across the coast of Alaska, gusts to 89 mph have been reported in Wales, and storm surge of 6 feet and rising has been reported for Nome, according to the NWS, which is calling it “one of the most severe Bering Sea storms on record.”

“The storm, which is forecast to have sustained winds of 80 mph over an area the size of Colorado, is also predicted to produce storm surge effects on the Alaskan coast 8 to 10 feet above normal water levels,” NWS states.