300 airlifted out of villages in Alaska after typhoon, floods

300 airlifted out of villages in Alaska after typhoon, floods
by Lisa Hornung
Washington DC (UPI) Oct 16, 2025

Rescue efforts have airlifted at least 300 people from parts of Alaska after the remnants of Typhoon Halgong sent storm surge of over 6 feet into the state's coast.

The Alaska National Guard called it the largest airlift in the state's recent history.

Typhoon Halong brought extreme winds -- some over 100 mph -- that overturned homes. Storm surge flooded villages. Kipnuk and Kwigillingok were hardest hit. Storm surge reached 6.6 feet in Kipnuk, almost two feet higher than the previous record.

Overnight the Guard evacuated 300 people from a regional shelter that was at capacity in Bethel to Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, about 400 miles away. The remaining residents of the two villages will be evacuated from Bethel to Anchorage by Friday, said Lt. Col. Brendan Holbrook, commander of the Alaska Army National Guard's 207th Aviation Troop Command, The Washington Post reported.

A woman, 67, was found dead, and two men, 71 and 41, were missing, the state's Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management said Wednesday. The mission has shifted from rescue to recovery for the men.

The agency is now focused on sheltering evacuees and restoring water, power and sanitation to the communities.

The Red Cross said as many as 2,000 people were forced to leave their homes.

"Homes have been flooded, pushed off their foundations and, in some cases, swept entirely out to sea. The typhoon's remnants also damaged critical infrastructure including roads, communication lines and air and seaport facilities," it said. "This could be a prolonged relief operation lasting months as villages have been left inaccessible or unlivable as winter sets in."

Other villages are struggling, too, it said.

"As winter approaches, there are other villages in the region where residents have no power or running water, food they had stored for the winter now ruined and stoves used to heat their homes damaged," the Red Cross said in a statement. "That damage could make the winter difficult in remote communities where people store food from hunting and fishing to help make it through the season."

In Kipnuk, floods have become a regular occurrence. The village of 700 people flooded at least 30 times from 1979 to 2002. Rayna Paul, Kipnuk's environmental director, applied for and was awarded a $20 million grant to fortify part of the area's riverbang. The President Donald Trump administration later canceled it, The Post reported.