JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — More rain and winds were expected Wednesday along the Alaska coast where two small villages were destroyed. Remnants of typhoon Halong And authorities were scrambling to find shelter for more than 1,500 people forced from their homes.
The weekend storm brought high winds and waves that battered low-lying Alaska Native communities along the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta in the southwest part of the state, nearly 500 miles (800 kilometers) from Anchorage. At least one person was killed and two are missing. Coast Guard storms the structure and takes 24 people from their homes floating in the sea.
Officials said hundreds of people were staying in school evacuation centers, some without access to toilets. This weather system comes on the heels of a storm that hit parts of western Alaska several days earlier.
More than 1,500 people were evacuated across the region. Dozens of people were airlifted to a shelter set up at the National Guard Armory in Bethel, a regional hub of 6,000 people, and officials are considering airlifting evacuees to long-term shelters or emergency housing in Fairbanks or Anchorage.
The worst-affected communities include Kipunuk, population 715, and Kwigilingok, population 380. These areas are off the state’s highway system and can only be reached by water or air at this time of year.
“It’s a catastrophic situation in Kipnuk. Let’s not paint a better picture,” Mark Roberts, incident commander for the state Division of Emergency Management, said at a news conference Tuesday. “We’re doing everything we can to continue to support that community, but this is about as bad as you can imagine.”
heartbreaking moment
Among those waiting to be evacuated to Bethel on Tuesday was Kipnuk resident Blair Paul, who said in a text message that she saw about 20 houses floating in the moonlight Saturday night.
“Some homes flashed their cell phone lights at us as if asking for help, but we couldn’t even do anything,” she wrote.
The next morning, she recorded a video of the house, which was submerged near the roof line, flowing past her home.
Paul and his neighbors held a long meeting Monday night in a local school gymnasium. They sang songs while thinking about what to do next, she said. Paul had no idea where she was going.
“It is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our community members, not knowing when we will see them again,” she said.
The body of a woman was found in Kwigilingok, about 48 kilometers (48 kilometers) away, and authorities on Monday night called off the search for two men whose homes were swept away.
The school was the only fully-powered facility in town, but it lacked functioning toilets and 400 people remained there Monday night. Workers were trying to repair the bathroom. A situation report from the state Emergency Operations Center on Tuesday noted the use of portable toilets, or “honey buckets.”
According to the Emergency Management Agency, a preliminary investigation shows that all the homes in the village were damaged in the storm, and about 30 were washed off their foundations.
Power systems were flooded in Napakiak, and severe erosion was reported in Toksuk Bay. In Nightmute, authorities said fuel drums were reported floating in the area, there was a smell of fuel in the air and there was a sheen on the water.
The National Guard was brought in to assist with the emergency response, and crews took advantage of the weather break to fly in food, water, generators and communications equipment.
Officials say road to recovery is long
Officials warned of the long road to recovery and the need for continued support for the hardest-hit communities. There is little time left as most of the rebuilding supplies need to be transported and winter is just around the corner.
“Alaska’s Native communities are resilient,” said Rick Thoman, an Alaska climate expert at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. “But, as you know, there is only so much an individual or a small community can do when you have an entire community where virtually every home is damaged and many of them are rendered uninhabitable because winter comes knocking on the door.”
Thoman said the storm was likely caused by warm surface waters in the Pacific Ocean, and human-induced climate change is causing temperatures to rise and storms to become more intense.
The remnants of another storm, Typhoon Mabok, caused damage across the country. vast area of western Alaska 3 years ago.
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Johnson and Attanasio reported from Seattle.
