1 dead, 2 missing after severe Alaska flooding Coast Guard official says left “absolute devastation”

One person was dead and two were missing in western Alaska on Monday after the remnants of Typhoon Halong brought hurricane-force winds and ravaging storm surges and floodwaters over the weekend that swept some homes away, authorities said. More than 50 people had been rescued – some plucked from rooftops.

Officials warned of a long road to recovery and a need for continued support for the hardest-hit communities with winter just around the corner. A U.S. Coast Guard official, Capt. Christopher Culpepper, described the situation in the villages of Kipnuk and Kwigillingok as “absolute devastation.”

Alaska State Troopers said at least 51 people and two dogs were rescued in Kipnuk and Kwigillingok after the storm system walloped the communities. Both areas saw significant storm surge, according to the National Weather Service.

A woman was found dead and two people remained unaccounted for in Kwigillingok, troopers said. The agency earlier said it was working to confirm secondhand reports of people who were unaccounted for in Kipnuk but IT SAID late Monday that troopers had determined no one there was missing.

Troopers said it and several other agencies were searching by boat and from the air for the missing people. Troopers said they also sent a helicopter from Fairbanks to aid in the search and deliver generators and fuel to the communities.

Coping as storm was hitting  

According to the nonprofit Coastal Villages Region Fund, most of the residents in both communities had taken shelter in local schools.

In addition to housing concerns, residents impacted by the system across the region reported power outages, a lack of running water, subsistence foods stocked in freezers ruined and damage to home-heating stoves. That damage could make the winter difficult in remote communities where people store food from hunting and fishing to help make it through the season.

Jamie Jenkins, 42, who lives in another hard-hit community, Napakiak, said the storm was “the worst I’ve ever seen.” She described howling winds and fast-rising waters Sunday morning.

Her mother – whose nearby home shifted on its foundation – and a neighbor whose home flooded came over to Jenkins’ place. They tried to wait out the storm, she said, but when the waters reached their top stairs, they got in a boat and evacuated to the school.

Jenkins said “practically the whole community” was there. The men in town gathered their boats and went house to house to pick up anyone else who was still in their homes, she said.

Adaline Pete, who lives in another community, Kotlik, said she had never experienced winds so strong. An unoccupied house next door flipped over but she said her family felt safe in their home.

Climate funds in doubt  

During a news conference organized by Gov. Mike Dunleavy, Alaska’s two U.S. senators, Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, said they would continue to focus on climate resilience and infrastructure funds for Alaska. Sullivan said it was the congressional delegation’s job to ensure the Trump administration and their colleagues understood the importance of such funds.

Earlier this year, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said it would end a program aimed at mitigating disaster risks. The decision is being challenged in court.

Murkowski said erosion mitigation projects take time to complete. “But our reality is, we are seeing these storms coming … certainly on a more frequent basis, and the intensity that we’re seeing seems to be accumulating as well, and so the time to act on it is now because it’s going to take us some time to get these in place,” she said of such projects.

About 380 people live in Kwigillingok, a predominately Alaska Native community on the western shore of Kuskokwim Bay and near the mouth of the Kuskokwim River. A report prepared for the local tribe in 2022 by the Alaska Institute for Justice said the frequency and severity of flooding in the low-lying region had increased in recent years. The report listed relocation of the community as an urgent need.

Erosion and melting permafrost pose threats to infrastructure and in some cases entire communities in Alaska, which is experiencing the impacts of climate change.