Alaska transports hundreds of people from storm-devastated coastal areas

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — The house rocked as if an earthquake had struck, and suddenly it floated. Water seeped through the front door and waves hit the large window.

From the isolated, dry room where Alexie Stone and his brothers and children gathered, he could look out and see underwater, like an aquarium. A shed was drifting towards them, threatening to shatter the glass, but it turned away before it hit.

The house came to rest just a few meters from where it previously stood, after another building blocked its path. But it remains uninhabitable, as does much of the rest of Stone’s Alaska Native village of Kipnuk, following a huge storm surge that flooded coastal areas of western Alaska, left one dead and two missing and sparked a massive evacuation effort to airlift more than 1,000 residents to safety.

“In our village, we would say we are Native strong, we have Native pride and nothing can break us. But this is the hardest we have been through,” Stone said Thursday outside the Alaska Airlines Center, an arena in Anchorage, where he and hundreds of others were staying. “Everyone takes care of everyone there. We’re all grateful to all be alive.”

The remnants of Typhoon Halong brought Record flooding was recorded in low-lying Alaska Native communities last weekend and homes were swept away, some with people inside. Makeshift shelters were quickly set up and grew to accommodate around 1,500 people, an extraordinary number in a sparsely populated region where communities are only accessible by air or sea at this time of year.

Many evacuees were first flown to Bethel, a regional center of 6,000 people. But authorities sought to relocate them as shelters approached capacity. Stone and his family spent several nights sleeping on the floor of the Kipnuk school library before being flown to Bethel and then to Anchorage, about 500 miles (805 kilometers) east of the villages. They arrived strapped to the floor of a huge military transport plane with hundreds of other evacuees.

A military plane transported 266 evacuees from Bethel to Anchorage on Wednesday and another 210 on Thursday, said Col. Christy Brewer of the Alaska National Guard. Another flight was expected Thursday evening and more over the next two days.

Anchorage officials were working with the Red Cross to also house people at the Egan Center, a convention venue, as well as possibly at two recreation centers, Mayor Suzanne LaFrance’s office said.

Two villages were hit hard

The hardest hit communities, Kipnuk and Kwigillingok, saw water levels rise more than 1.8 meters above the highest normal tide line. Some 121 houses were destroyed in Kipnuk, a village of around 700 inhabitants, and in Kwigillingok, three dozen houses were missing.

Cell phone service had been restored in Kwigillingok on Thursday, authorities said, and toilets were working again at the school, where about 350 people had taken shelter overnight Tuesday.

The damage was also significant in other villages. Water, sewer and well systems were unusable in Napaskiak, according to a statement from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Jeremy Zidek, a spokesman for the State Emergency Management Office, said he did not know how long the evacuation would take and said authorities were seeking additional shelter. The goal is to move people from collective shelters to hotel rooms or dormitories, he said.

The crisis unfolding in Southwest Alaska has focused attention on the Trump administration’s cuts to grants intended to help small, mostly Native villages prepare for storms or mitigate disaster risks.

For example, a $20 million U.S. Environmental Protection Agency grant to Kipnuk, which was inundated by floodwaters, was cut off by the Trump administration, a decision contested by environmental groups. The grant was intended to protect the boardwalk that residents use to get around the community, as well as 1,400 feet (430 meters) of river from erosion, according to a federal website that tracks government spending.

Determined to rebuild

While still at Kipnuk, Stone spent his days trying to help, he said. He would go to the airport to collect water or food sent from other villages and deliver it to the school. He worked to rebuild the boardwalks on which residents travel. And when he had time, he would return to his dilapidated house, trying to clean some of the waterlogged clothes and electronics that the floodwaters had thrown around.

But the damage is considerable. Fuel and oil have leaked from the tanks, and the smell of oil permeates the entire city, he said. Like other villagers in the region, his family lost food supplies intended to help them get through the winter: the refrigerator and three freezers full of halibut, salmon, moose and goose.

Stone’s mother, Julia Stone, is a police officer in the village of Kipnuk. She was working at the school last weekend when the winds suddenly picked up, people suddenly began streaming into the building and her police cellphone on duty began ringing with calls from people in need – some reporting their homes were floating.

She tried to contact search and rescue teams and others to determine if there were boats available to help, but the situation was “chaotic,” she said.

Her voice cracked during an interview Thursday in Anchorage as she thanked people at the school who contributed to the response. “It’s a nightmare what we went through, but I thank God that we are together,” she said.

Stone said he evacuated with the clothes on his back. Most of the rest of his possessions were soaked and reeked of fuel. The Red Cross has provided cots, blankets and hygiene supplies to Anchorage, he said, and he went to a thrift store Thursday to buy more clothes: two shirts, a sweater, two pairs of pants and tennis shoes.

He doesn’t know exactly when it would be safe for him to return to Kipnuk.

“Everyone that comes from Kipnuk here is pretty strong,” Stone said. “If we have to start again, we have to start again.”

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Johnson reported from Seattle. Associated Press writer Becky Bohrer in Juneau contributed.