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‘Sinkhole’ in Southwest Alaska village linked to thawing permafrost forces family to evacuate their home Author: Greg Kim, KYUK Share on Facebook The COVID-19 pandemic has not put a pause on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta’s environmental threats. In Chefornak, a family was forced to evacuate their home because a “sinkhole” caused by thawing permafrost formed underneath it. That family had to move into a building intended to be a quarantine facility. Delores “Dolly” Abraham’s original fear was not a sinkhole, but the river. By last spring, she said, erosion on the riverbank i...

4:38 Delores “Dolly” Abraham’s original fear was not a sinkhole, but the river. By last spring, she said that the riverbank, which is eroding in Chefornak, had almost reached the edge of her home. “Probably like 6 or less feet,” Abraham said. With help from her village, Abraham planned to move her home to a safer location. But when contractors came to begin the process of moving her house, they found a bigger problem than the river: there was a 4 to 6-foot-deep sinkhole underneath her home.  “I got scared. I didn't want to live in there anymore,” Abraham said. “And the house,...