Alaska governor asks Trump for federal aid after typhoon displaces 1,500 people | Alaska

Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy asked Donald Trump to declare a major disaster after a powerful storm devastated villages in the state’s southwest, displacing 1,500 people and prompting large-scale air evacuations.

The state’s senators and congressman urged the president to approve the declaration allowing additional federal resources to be provided to the region for housing and facilities repairs before winter. Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan and Alaska Congressman Nick Begich wrote that the scale of the disaster exceeded the state’s ability to respond.

“This significant storm affected thousands of miles of coastline from the Aleutian Islands to the North Slope,” the letter to Trump says. “Immediate federal assistance is needed to support Alaskans recovering from the damage of this storm and reduce the impact of future severe weather events.”

The remnants of Typhoon Halong slammed into remote Alaska Native communities in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta over the weekend, battering the region with high winds, rain and a record-breaking storm surge that sent water into homes and sent some flying off their foundations. At least one person died and two people are still missing.

The state quickly established temporary shelters to accommodate approximately 1,500 people; this was an extraordinary number in a sparsely populated region where communities could only be reached by air or sea at this time of year. Just two local schools were housing about 1,000 people before evacuees were transferred to larger shelters, Alaska Public Media reported earlier this week. But conditions were harsh, with limited power and bathroom access, and the state began evacuating people by plane to larger shelters in Anchorage, about 500 miles away.

Authorities are still assessing the full extent of the damage and the destruction was extensive. Residents reported the storm caused chaos, shaking communities across the southwest like an earthquake and sending waves through their homes.

Alexie Stone, who was with his siblings and children in the Alaskan native village of Kipnuk, said he could look outside over the weekend and see the bottom of the water like an aquarium. A shed drifted towards them, threatening to break the window, but turned away before impacting.

The house was left just meters away from where it was before after another building blocked its path. This place, along with most of the village, is uninhabitable.

“We used to say in our village that Native people were strong, that we had Native pride, that nothing could bring us down. But this was the hardest thing we’ve ever been through,” Stone said Thursday outside a shelter at Alaska Airlines headquarters in Anchorage. “Everyone takes care of each other there. We’re all grateful to be alive.”

Stone’s mother, Julia Stone, is a village police officer in Kipnuk. He was working last weekend when the wind suddenly picked up and the police’s cell phone started ringing with calls for help from some residents reporting their homes were floating. He said he tried to reach search and rescue teams and others to determine if there were boats that could help, but the situation was “chaos.”

“What we went through was a nightmare, but thank God we are together,” he said.

In Kipnuk and Kwigillingok, the communities most affected by the earthquake, water levels were seen to be more than 1.8 meters. In Kipnuk, a village of about 700 people and about 121 houses were destroyed, and in Kwigillingok, three dozen houses were swept away. In the village of Napaskiak, water, sewer and well systems are not working.

The disaster has brought renewed attention to the Trump administration’s cuts to grants aimed mostly at helping indigenous villages prepare for storms or reduce disaster risks.

Earlier this year, the administration canceled a $20 million grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to Kipnuk, which was flooded during this weekend’s storm. The purpose of the grant was to protect 1,400 feet (430 meters) of the river from erosion, as well as the boardwalk that residents use to get around the community, according to a federal website that tracks government spending.

Following the storm, Alaskans raised more than $1 million to support evacuees.