阿拉斯加暴风雨竟与海冰减少有关(上)

This is Scientific American’s 60 Second Science. I’m Emily Schwing.

这里是科学美国人——60秒科学系列，我是艾米丽·施文。

In September, a massive storm on Alaska’s western coast brought a surge of water 17 miles inland from the Bering Sea to the Cup'ik village of Chevak.

今年9月，阿拉斯加西海岸的一场大规模暴风雨带来了强降雨，从距白令海17英里的土地一直肆虐到切瓦克的丘比克村。

The storm was crazy.

这场暴风雨很猛。

What was crazy about it?

这场暴风雨有多猛烈呢?

It flooded down there just like the sea…

它如海水一般倾泻而下......

It was like an ocean!

简直就像一片汪洋!

Some powers turned out and some people had to sleep at the school for three days.

电力中断，一些人不得不在学校里睡了三天。

Just over 900 people live in this community. It sits on a high bank above the Ninglikfak River.

这个社区坐落于宁利克法克河岸的高处，只有900多人。

Elder John Pingayak says the storm shook his resolve.

长者约翰·平亚克说，暴风雨动摇了他的决心。

For three days, I was in turmoil because I finally realized how dangerous our situation [is] here in western Alaska.

整整三天，我都处于混乱之中，因为我终于意识到我们在阿拉斯加西部的处境是多么危险。

It’s vulnerable from very high winds and a water surge.

这里很容易受到强风和暴雨的袭击。

The impact of the storm, called Merbok, is very real for thousands of rural residents in western Alaska.

这场被称为“苗柏”的风暴对阿拉斯加西部成千上万的农村居民的影响是非常真实的。

Dozens of villages saw some level of flooding. People lost power, causing chest freezers to defrost.

数十个村庄遭遇了不同程度的洪水。人们失去了电力供应，而这导致冰柜解冻。

The power outages destroyed months of subsistence foods that people spent their summers storing up.

电力中断破坏了人们在夏季储存的供数月维持生计的食物。

Food security in this part of the state is precarious.

该州这一地区的粮食安全岌岌可危。

And on top of defrosted freezers, nearly all of the 90 or so boats people use to go fishing and hunting for their main sources of food in Chevak were damaged or destroyed.

在切瓦克，除了解冻的冰柜，人们用来捕鱼和打猎的90艘左右的船只几乎全部受损或被毁，这些船只保证了人们的主要食物来源。

Pingayak says the losses are devastating.

平亚克说，损失是毁灭性的。

It’s our survival. If I'm Cup'ik, subsistence is mine. That's me.

这是我们的生存模式。如果我在丘比克村，维持生计是我的活儿。要靠我。

That's—subsistence is me because I’m the one that’s going out and fishing.

维持生计的是我，因为外出捕鱼的人是我。

I’m the one that’s going out and hunting for my family. And we do it for a livelihood and survival.

那个外出为家庭捕获食物的人是我。我们这样做是为了生计和生存。

When the flood came in, it filled up with water, and then it drifted over and sunk right on the river channel.

洪水涌进来的时候，这艘船被填满了水，然后漂了过来，正好沉在了河道上。