ANCHORAGE, Alaska, Nov. 9 (Reuters) – A storm forecast to be oneof the worst on record in Alaska lashed the state's westerncoastline on Wednesday, tearing roofs off buildings and pushingwater and debris into communities, authorities said.

The storm, which began hitting Alaska late on Tuesday afterbuilding over the North Pacific Ocean, brought winds measured at upto 89 miles (143 km) per hour and flooded parts of some Nativevillages along the coastline.

There were no reports of deaths or injuries as of Wednesdayevening, and damage tallied so far was caused largely by wind andincluded reports of tin roofs flying off and power lines down,authorities said.

“This is a storm of epic proportions, as it's being described,”said Jeff Osiensky, a meteorologist and regional warningcoordinator for the National Weather Service. “This is kind ofratcheted up to a level much higher than we've been accustomedto.”

“I think this would probably be about a Category 3-typehurricane if we were to do some sort of a similar comparison,” hesaid. “It's on the line of a pretty destructive hurricane.”

Category 3 hurricanes on the Saffir-Simpson scale, which havesustained winds exceeding 111 miles (178 km) per hour, can causedevastating damage to homes, buildings and utilities.

Osiensky said that by Wednesday evening wind speeds werediminishing but water levels would remain high and new surges offloodwaters were expected.

Most of western Alaska is at high risk, from the Yupik Eskimocommunity of Bethel in the Yukon-Kuskowim delta to the InupiatEskimo village of Wainwright on the North Slope, according to theNational Weather Service.

But one of the hardest-hit areas so far has been Nome, a formerGold Rush boomtown famous as the end of the Iditarod Trail Sled DogRace, and surrounding villages.

There, the storm tossed debris onto roads, making drivingdangerous, city officials reported. Waves have launched “fist-sizedrocks” and logs up to two feet in diameter onto the roadway,officials said.

“These objects would cause injury to any person that wasstruck,” the city's emergency managers said in a writtenstatement.

Evacuations have been ordered in low-lying parts of Nome andother sites, with residents housed in schools and other publicbuildings. But large-scale evacuations out of the region are notconsidered feasible because weather conditions make flyinghazardous, a state official said Tuesday.

Nome, with 3,600 residents, is one of the largest cities inwestern Alaska. The communities spread along the coastline aremostly traditional Native settlements, with a few hundred to a fewthousand inhabitants, and no roads linking communities.

The Alaska Division of Homeland Security and EmergencyManagement set up an incident command to respond to the storm. TheU.S. Coast Guard has stationed helicopters and cutters in theregion to aid mariners involved in the crab fishery.

The Alaska National Guard activated an operations center atJoint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage.

Powerful storms of this magnitude are common at this time ofyear in the Bering Sea and North Pacific, but this storm is unusualbecause of its northward trajectory and the lack of sea ice innear-shore areas like Norton Sound off Nome, National WeatherService and other agency officials said.

“Forty years ago, a big storm like this would come through andthe sea ice would act as sort of a buffer,” said Mark Serreze,director of the Snow and Ice Data Center.

“The Bering Sea has and always will have these strong storms.What is different now is their potential destructiveness as youlose the sea ice cover,” he added.