Barely covered in the national press, Western Alaska’s Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta was battered in mid-October by the remnants of Typhoon Halong, unleashing up to 100 mph winds and a catastrophic storm surge that flooded low-lying coastal villages.  The worst impacts struck Oct. 12–14, 2025, when water rose several feet above normal tides and waves ripped into riverbanks, boardwalks, fuel farms, and homes.  Most of the area is at sea level, leaving communities incredibly vulnerable to a typhoon of this magnitude.

According to local reporting from KYUK, the public media outlet in Bethel, two remote Yup’ik villages — Kipnuk and Kwigillingok — suffered catastrophic damage.  Local and state briefings describe near-total residential loss in Kipnuk (damage to virtually every home) and widespread destruction in Kwigillingok.  Bethel, the regional hub, was inundated with evacuees as airlifts ramped up.  Kipnuk tribal administrator Buggy Carl told reporters that it is “unsafe to stay.”  Power and telecommunications are spotty, and “nearly all the homes in both areas were damaged,” said Carl.

On Oct. 17, a Special Anchorage Assembly meeting was convened in Anchorage to discuss plans to help those affected by the storm.  At the time of the meeting, evacuees from about “15 Alaskan villages overall” were reportedly heading for Anchorage.  A special emergency was declared at the meeting.

During the meeting, a representative from District 38 explained that the residents of remote communities like hers are “taught not to ask for any assistance or help.”  However, she confirmed the need, asking rescuers to be patient — “to stop and take the time” to allow displaced residents time to “open up.”  At least 572 individuals had already arrived, and officials in Anchorage were told to expect around 1,600 evacuees.  As of Oct. 20, one death was reported, and there were two missing, all from Kwigillingok.

According to members of the assembly and other reporting, many have lost their homes.  One home reportedly “floated a half mile down the street” with a woman inside.  The emergency was so unprecedented that the Anchorage municipal code had to be “expanded to include state or federally declared disasters.”  Ordinarily, civil emergencies apply only to those within municipal borders.  Officials in Anchorage prepared both short- and long-term plans to manage the catastrophe, anticipating, for one, an influx of students into Anchorage schools.

In response to the disaster, Alaska has mounted a historic evacuation airlift, moving affected residents to Bethel and then on to Anchorage.  The Alaska Airlines Egan Center was converted to a large American Red Cross shelter to handle evacuees.  The city of Anchorage also offered recreation center facilities in Fairview and Spenard.

In addition, the State Emergency Operations Center (SEOC) deployed teams to Bethel and Kotzebue, with more than 100 Alaska Organized Militia personnel as support.  A Major Incident Response, level 4, the SEOC’s highest, was activated.  According to Alaska’s Department of Military Affairs, “Two UH-60 Blackhawks, one HH-60 MEDEVAC, one CH-47 Chinook, and a C-17 Globemaster 111 (a gigantic cargo plane)” were activated for the mission.  Department of Homeland Security (DHS) secretary Kristi Noem shared that the U.S. Coast Guard was also involved in evacuations.

Quinhagak resident Warren Jones told Alaska Public Media (KSKA) that the “storm surge peeled back the shoreline that borders the village by as much as 60 feet ... stripping off the topsoil tundra” and leaving only “clay and permafrost” exposed.

The Conversation explains why “disasters in remote Alaska are not like disasters anywhere in the lower 48 states.”  Simply put, residents in these remote Alaskan communities can’t just “run to Home Depot for supplies or drive to a hotel if their home floods, none of that exists in remote Native villages.”  The article continues:

The land in this part of western Alaska is very flat, so major storms can drive the ocean into the delta, and the water spreads out.

Most of the land there is very close to sea level, in some places less than 10 feet above the high tide line. Permafrost is also thawing, land is subsiding, and sea-level rise is adding to the risk. For many people, there is literally nowhere to go. Even Bethel, the region’s largest town, about 60 miles up the Kuskokwim River, saw flooding from Halong.

These are very remote communities with no roads to cities. The only way to access them is by boat or plane. Right now, they have a lot of people with nowhere to live, and winter is closing in.