Authorities in Alaska are staging a major evacuation operation, relocating hundreds of people in one of the “most significant” airlifts in the state’s history, after a storm decimated two villages along the south-west coast over the weekend.
More than 1,500 people were displaced after the remnants of Typhoon Halong hit remote communities in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, battering the area with fierce winds, rain and record-breaking storm surge that caused some homes to float off their foundations.
Some of those displaced from the hardest-hit communities, including Kipnuk, with a population of 715, and Kwigillingok, population 380, had been staying in shelters were conditions were challenging with limited power and bathroom access.
State authorities were transporting about 300 evacuees to Anchorage, hundreds of miles from the coastal communities, according to Alaska’s department of military and veterans affairs. The state had repurposed a 5,000-seat arena in the city to serve as an American Red Cross shelter to receive evacuees. Meanwhile, hundreds of disaster workers from across the country are being deployed to the area to assist those displaced by the storm, the disaster relief non-profit said.
But local authorities acknowledged not all residents would be willing to evacuate.
Jeremy Zidek, the emergency management office spokesperson, could not say on Wednesday evening where exactly those evacuees were from. He said some people in the affected communities might choose to stay back or to stay with others.
Shelter space in the south-west Alaska regional hub of Bethel had been reaching capacity, officials said. At the Kwigillingok school, where many residents had taken refuge, toilets were not working, Buggy Carl, a Kipnuk tribal administrator, told Alaska Public Media. In Kipnuk, power and telecommunications were spotty.
The weekend storm brought hurricane-force winds and pushed the tide line 6ft (1.8 meters) above normal in the communities, according to the National Weather Service.
“It’s catastrophic in Kipnuk. Let’s not paint any other picture,” Mark Roberts, an incident commander with the state emergency management division, said during a news conference on Tuesday. “We are doing everything we can to continue to support that community, but it is as bad as you can think.”
The communities are located near the Bering Sea coastline, and are only accessible by boat or air. The crisis has drawn attention to Trump administration cuts to federal grants aimed at helping some small, mostly Indigenous villages prepare for the ravages of storms or mitigate their disaster risks.
A $20m US Environmental Protection Agency grant to Kipnuk for example, was terminated by the Trump administration, a move challenged by environmental groups.
Carl, the Kipnuk tribal administrator, said he was focused on one thing.
“Right now, just trying to convince everybody to go before the next storm hits,” he said.
The storm over the weekend killed at least one person, Ella Mae Kashatok, 67, and left two people missing. Authorities on Monday night called off the search for Vernon Pavil, 71, and Chester Kashatok, 41, whose home floated away after what they described as a “robust and extensive” effort.
