By Gabe Canfield
Last week, a fall storm hit the Western coast of Alaska, its focal point hitting the communities of the Seward Peninsula and Kotzebue Sound. Residents of the region mentioned heightened fear of the storm not from just its intensity but its unpredictability of the winds, tides, and other impacts the storm brought. Not even a week later, what was coined the “remnants” of typhoon Halong (as winds from this storm hit Alaska at 107mph, this likely deserves stronger recognition than remnants) struck the same coast, with its strongest effects hitting the communities of Kipnuk, Kwigillingok, Nightmute, Chefornak, Tuntutuliak, Napakiak, and the local hub community of Bethel.
Flooding in these communities ranged from 4 to over 14 feet of storm surge. Communities of Kipnuk and Kwigillingok — communities at the delta mouth of the Kuskokwim River — are closest to the ocean, and storm surge rose so quickly that it picked up houses with people still inside, sending them floating upriver as far as 7 miles away. People in these houses had to be rescued by the coast guard and Alaska Army National Guard, as well as other community members, where they initially evacuated to the school. Once the storm surge waned and the daylight returned, these communities were uninhabitable. 1800+ people overnight, became houseless from this natural disaster.
These impacts are devastating. To imagine just one singular family experiencing a house fire and losing everything they own, their food and livelihood, their routine and neighbors, and their every day life, is a tragedy to imagine on its own. It can be hard to picture the future solutions for such a huge tragedy at multiple times magnitude and scale. These communities are now evacuating to Bethel as there is not capacity anymore in the communities of Kipnuk and Kwigillingok for residential living. Some of these people are being taken even further, to Anchorage and even Fairbanks over 500 miles away. That begs the question: why is this a solution for the evacuees from Typhoon Halong?
This is not the biggest storm this region has seen in recent history. Typhoon Merbok, in September of 2022, saw significant damages to communities all up and down Western Alaska. It provided a window into a climate-altered future of the small villages and communities of the region. Alaskan officials are no stranger to disaster responses of this magnitude. Why then, is the most necessary response to a similar disaster going to Anchorage? Why are there no channels for response in Bethel? What about addressing the issue of the housing crisis in Bethel and other Western Alaskan communities so that response to disaster can be better?
We are doing a disservice to the people going through unimaginable hardship during this time. There are other avenues of response possible to help out people affected by this disaster other than sending them 500 miles away to an entirely different community! The equivalent of this occurrence is sending someone living in Los Angeles to Salt Lake City, Utah. Except with the added fact that doing such a thing is likely removing Indigenous Peoples from their homelands, without their pets, and only a single bag of their belongings allowed on the trip. Something along those lines sounds quite familiar. Alaska government, the federal government, and agencies have had 3 years since Typhoon Merbok but almost countless years to support policies that reduce climate change impact and climate adaptation planning for these communities and people so that they wouldn’t have to be removed in this way.
Disaster planning and solutions don’t start with the disaster itself. They ideally start years before, seeing local environmental patterns and effects communicated by local experts. And in the case of Kipnuk, a $20 million flood protection grant was cancelled by the E.P.A earlier this year, a local solution that would have addressed climate change impacts head-on, in a state where another local bi-partisan land-use plan was cancelled due to the same “federal overreach” claims.
Federal decisions, in this case, have caused more harm than good. For Alaska village communities, that harm is not new on a federal level. Although the rescue is done by hundreds of selfless volunteers — and Alaskans are often known for our giving nature — We continue to perpetuate harm by allowing disaster response to be removal of community members instead of climate change mitigation. I hope that we can give solace to the people experiencing such loss of their homes and family members, and do justice to supporting them fully with what they need at this time.
To support the people of Western Alaska, please donate monetary relief and support to the people experiencing this tragedy linked below.
Gabe Canfield’s Inupiaq name is Kungunna, and is from Ketchikan, now residing in Anchorage. Canfield is the Climate Adaptation Catalyst at the Northwest Boreal Partnership and the Climate Adaptation Center.
This post is a submission to The Alaska Current. Please send submissions to news@thealaskacurrent.com.
