Typhoon Halong’s remnants have devastated western Alaska villages, with few noticing.
Earlier this month, the remnants of a Pacific typhoon battered small coastal communities in a state popular with tourists worldwide. Catastrophic weather events in tourism-supported states typically receive significant attention, but here there was no widespread coverage of burned-out celebrity homes, like there were earlier this year in Los Angeles, or famous donors forming assistance funds, like there were following the fires in West Maui in 2023.
The remnants of Typhoon Halong brought high surf and strong winds to Alaska’s southwest coast over the weekend. Residents in several villages, including Kotlik, Napakiak, Kipnuk, and Kwigillingok, already struggling to combat coastal erosion, watched helplessly as their communities were flooded, carrying away homes—in some cases with their occupants still inside—knocking out utilities, and destroying food caches stocked with provisions in anticipation of the coming winter.
One body was recovered and two remain missing in Kwigillingok, occupants of a home that broke loose and floated toward the Bering Sea. More than 1,300 residents in a total of eight Western Alaska communities were sheltering in local schools. In Kipnuk, 600 residents were sheltering at the local school, but conditions at the building are deteriorating and residents were informed Wednesday that evacuation would be mandatory—and that most villagers would have to leave virtually all their belongings—including pets, behind. Pet rescues in Bethel were trying to find ways to get pets and other animals to safety.
Continue Reading Article After Our Video
Recommended Fodor’s Video
The state of Alaska is coordinating evacuation efforts for both Kipnuk and Kwigillingok, where Bering Sea waters surged more than six feet above the normal tide line. More than 1,000 residents are being flown to shelters in Bethel and Anchorage, where shelters are already near capacity, addressing ongoing housing concerns. State disaster assessors have already estimated that the majority of homes in both villages may not be safely occupiable anytime soon, even with emergency repairs. The storm also severely damaged infrastructure in the villages.
Anchorage mayor Suzanne LaFrance acknowledged that many evacuated residents will need longer-term housing solutions, as it’s unlikely they will be able to return home before the end of winter.
Although Alaska has a large tourism industry, tourism activity is concentrated largely in the southeast and central parts of the state. The populations of the affected villages are virtually all Indigenous Yup’ik people living a largely subsistence lifestyle so the social media posts recounting fond memories of holidays in Jasper or Maui after their wildfires, or Asheville following the remnants of Hurricane Helene, are unlikely to be repeated here. The region’s primary contact with the tourism industry is also remote—in some of the villages, women work weaving qiviut—the soft underwool of the musk ox—into traditional garments which sell in tourism centers like Anchorage.
Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy has requested and received funding from FEMA to aid in disaster response, but the federal government’s perspective on disaster is also a departure from recent years. The Trump Administration has planned to shift more of the responsibility for disaster response to the states, but Alaska’s current emergency plans allocate 75% of recovery costs to the federal government, and there’s little room in the state budget for additional funding. Several community organizations in Alaska have put plans in place to offer support, including accepting financial assistance from individual donors.
A $20 million federal grant to address riverbank erosion in Kipnuk was cancelled by the Environmental Protection Agency this May in response to an executive order, in a move that is getting more attention in Washington, D.C., during the recovery efforts for the villages. A spokeswoman for Alaska Senator Dan Sullivan points out that the grant funding wouldn’t have prevented the disaster had it been preserved, but noted that both Sullivan and Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski requested that the funding be restored.
Murkowski’s statement was more pointed: “This administration prioritizes lowering costs — but minimizing the impacts of a disaster like this before it occurs is far cheaper than rebuilding afterward, to say nothing of the toll these events take on people’s lives,” she said. “Whether you call it climate change or ‘once-in-a-generation’ extreme weather, no community in the wealthiest country on earth should lack the basic infrastructure needed to keep its people safe.”
