Eskimo villagers flee storm surges

More than half the residents of an isolated Arctic village were evacuated as storm surges threatened to flood their slender barrier island, the latest chapter in their losing battle against the sea.

With no road system within hundreds of miles of Kivalina, about 100 people, mostly seniors and children, boarded small propeller planes to the regional hub city of Kotzebue. More than 100 others embarked on a grueling 70-mile nighttime journey by boat, all-terrain vehicle and bus to shelter at the mountain headquarters of a zinc mine.

The Inupiat Eskimo village is in northwest Alaska