Alaska
Congressional delegation pledges support as FEMA joins Western Alaska storm response
A day after Gov. Mike Dunleavy asked President Donald Trump to approve a major disaster declaration for Western Alaska to unlock funding, the Federal Emergency Management Agency confirmed it had received the request and sent staff to Alaska, but did not provide a timeline for approving the disaster declaration.
“We’re in receipt of the governor’s request and working closely with Alaska and talking with the leadership hand in hand,” the FEMA press office wrote Saturday in an unsigned statement.
The request for the disaster declaration came days after the remnants of Typhoon Halong battered several villages in Western Alaska, leaving one person dead and two missing as dozens of homes floated off their foundations. Hundreds of residents from Kipnuk, Kwigillingok and other communities have been evacuated to Bethel and Anchorage.
As of Friday, 64 FEMA staff were dedicated to the Alaska storm response, the officials wrote, including two state liaison officers, two tribal liaisons and two mass care specialists who are embedded at the State Emergency Operations Center in Anchorage to provide technical assistance to the state and tribal partners.
FEMA also activated a response coordination center in Washington state and began collecting imagery of the impacted areas to provide early damage assessments to responders, officials wrote.
Members of Alaska’s congressional delegation in speeches at the annual Alaska Federation of Natives convention on Friday and Saturday praised the response from local, state and federal agencies.
U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski called the response from FEMA and other organizations “fabulous.”
However, she said she remained concerned about next steps in assisting impacted communities and residents.
“As with every disaster, it seems that complications always come when you are in that recovery end of things, when you’re actually working through individual assistance applications,” she told reporters in Anchorage.
She said there could be challenges for Yup’ik speakers who are not fluent in English in filling out FEMA forms that are not adapted to the unique concerns of rural Alaska.
“So I’m not worried about the immediate — I’m worried about what comes next,” she said.
Murkowski, along with U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan and U.S. Rep. Nick Begich, pledged their commitment to ensure the federal government assists impacted individuals.
Begich said he intends to work with Murkowski and Sullivan “to pursue every opportunity available to ensure that families have both the immediate relief that they need and the long-term support that they need to get back on their feet.”
Sullivan praised a social media post from Vice President JD Vance, who wrote on Friday that the federal government is working to get help to affected Alaskans.
“I think that’s good when it comes from the top of the administration,” Sullivan said.
Murkowski was the first member of the congressional delegation to have visited the impacted region, with a short trip to Bethel and Kipnuk on Friday. She provided a more detailed view of what lies ahead during her Anchorage speech.
“It’s pretty powerful to observe first, to hear carefully what the needs are, before we swoop in from Washington or from afar to tell you what to do in your communities,” Murkowski said.
“I want to underscore — what you decide is best, because I will not accept that there are those who are from Washington, D.C., from other parts of the country, who have never been to your region, who have never heard your stories, that they feel that somehow they can determine your future,” Murkowski said, addressing a crowd of hundreds of Alaska Native people from across the state, including the region hit hardest by the storm.
Murkowski said that after meeting with teachers in the Kipnuk school, she thought it was important for children from the affected community to be kept together, even if they are unable to return to their village site for the foreseeable future.
“The more that we can keep these children and these families together in these communities while they are displaced, while they are out of their home, that is what we can do to help them,” Murkowski said.
Murkowski also took time in her speech to respond to the Environmental Protection Agency, which this week defended its decision to rescind a $20 million erosion mitigation grant awarded to Kipnuk — one of the hardest-hit villages — under the previous administration.
In a social media post, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said the cancellation of the grant prevented the money from being “swept into the Kuskokwim River.”
Murkowski said she was “offended” by the comment.
“I am outright mad that some have suggested that it is a waste of taxpayer dollars to protect Alaskan communities. We are Americans. Every single person that has been impacted is an American that deserves to be treated with that level of respect,” Murkowski said, eliciting prolonged applause.
The Kipnuk grant would likely not be revived, Murkowski said, “but we’re working to get some portion of that funding to go toward Kipnuk again.”
“We’re still fighting for the funding that we secured, including the resilience grants for Kipnuk that were canceled earlier this year, and while that funding may not have come in time to prevent the disaster that we saw this past week, they may prevent future disasters, and that’s the point,” said Murkowski.
Murkowski said that the Alaska congressional delegation would “keep pushing the administration” to restore funding meant for Alaska, after dozens of grants were canceled earlier this year due to Trump’s targeting of renewable energy and climate change initiatives.
“Simply recovering from this storm isn’t enough,” Murkowski said. “We have to be ready for the next one and the next one to follow, in Kipnuk and in every village, because these once-in-a-century storms are now arriving seemingly every year, and we have to prepare.”
• • •
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Alaska
Alaska delegation mixed on Venezuela capture legality, day before presidential war powers vote
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – Alaska’s congressional delegation had mixed reactions Wednesday on the legality of the Trump administration’s actions in Venezuela over the weekend, just a day before they’re set to vote on a bill ending “hostilities” in Venezuela.
It comes days after former Venezuelan Nicolás Maduro was captured by American forces and brought to the United States in handcuffs to face federal drug trafficking charges.
All U.S. Senators were to be briefed by the administration members at 10 a.m. ET Wednesday, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, according to CBS News.
Spokespersons for Alaska Sens. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, say they were at that meeting, but from their responses, the two shared different takeaways.
Sullivan, who previously commended the Trump administration for the operation in Venezuela, told KDLL after his briefing that the next steps in Venezuela would be done in three phases.
“One is just stabilization. They don’t want chaos,” he said.
“The second is to have an economic recovery phase … and then finally, the third phase is a transition to conduct free and fair elections and perhaps install the real winner of the 2024 election there, which was not Maduro.”
Murkowski spokesperson Joe Plesha said she had similar takeaways to Sullivan on the ousting of Maduro, but still held concerns on the legality.
“Nicolás Maduro is a dictator who led a brutally oppressive regime, and Venezuela and the world are better places without him in power,” Plesha said in a statement Wednesday. “While [Murkowski] continues to question the legal and policy framework that led to the military operation, the bigger question now is what happens next.”
Thursday, the Senate will decide what happens next when they vote on a war powers resolution which would require congressional approval to “be engaged in hostilities within or against Venezuela,” and directs the president to terminate the use of armed forces against Venezuela, “unless explicitly authorized by a declaration of war or specific authorization for use of military force.”
Several House leaders have also received a briefing from the administration according to CBS News. A spokesperson for Rep. Nick Begich, R-Alaska, said he received a House briefing and left believing the actions taken by the administration were legal.
“The information provided in today’s classified House briefing further confirmed that the actions taken by the Administration to obtain Maduro were necessary, time-dependent, and justified; and I applaud our military and the intelligence community for their exceptional work in executing this operation,” Begich said in a statement.
Looming vote
Sen. Tim Kaine, D-VA, authored the war powers resolution scheduled for debate Thursday at 11 a.m. ET — 7 a.m. AKST.
It’s a resolution which was one of the biggest topics of discussion on the chamber floors Wednesday.
Sen. Rand Paul, R-KY, said on the Senate floor Wednesdya that the actions taken by the administration were an “act of war,” and the president’s capture of Maduro violated the checks and balances established in the constitution, ending his remarks by encouraging his colleagues to vote in favor of the resolution.
“The constitution is clear,” Paul said. “Only Congress can declare a war.”
If all Democrats and independents vote for the Kaine resolution, and Paul keeps to his support, the bill will need three more votes to pass. If there is a tie, the vice president is the deciding vote.
“It’s as if a magical dust of soma has descended through the ventilation systems of congressional office buildings,” Paul continued Wednesday, referring to a particular type of muscle relaxant.
“Vague faces in permanent smiles and obedient applause indicate the degree that the majority party has lost its grip and have become eunuchs in the thrall of presidential domination.”
Legality of actions under scrutiny
U.S. forces arrested Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, from their Caracas home in an overnight operation early Saturday morning, Alaska time. Strikes accompanying the capture killed about 75 people, including military personnel and civilians, according to U.S. government officials granted anonymity by The Washington Post.
Maduro pleaded not guilty Monday in a New York courtroom to drug trafficking charges that include leading the “Cartel of the Suns,” a narco-trafficking organization comprised of high-ranking Venezuelan officials. The U.S. offered a $50 million reward for information leading to his capture.
Whether the U.S. was legally able to capture Maduro under both domestic and international law has been scrutinized in the halls of Congress. Members of the administration, like Secretary of State Marco Rubio, have been open in defending what they say was a law enforcement operation carrying out an arrest warrant, The Hill reports. Lawmakers, like Paul or Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-NY, say the actions were an act of war and a violation of the constitution.
While the president controls the military as commander in chief, Congress constitutionally has the power to declare wars. Congressional Democrats have accused Trump of skirting the Constitution by not seeking congressional authorization before the operation.
Murkowski has not outright condemned or supported the actions taken by the administration, saying in a statement she was hopeful the world was safer without Maduro in power, but the way the operation was handled is “important.”
Sullivan, on the other hand, commended Trump and those involved in the operation for forcing Maduro to “face American justice,” in an online statement.
Begich spokesperson Silver Prout told Alaska’s News Source Monday the Congressman believed the operation was “a lawful execution of a valid U.S. arrest warrant on longstanding criminal charges against Nicolás Maduro.”
The legality of U.S. military actions against Venezuela has taken significant focus in Washington over the past several months, highlighted by a “double-tap” strike — a second attack on the same target after an initial strike — which the Washington Post reported killed people clinging to the wreckage of a vessel after the military already struck it. The White House has confirmed the follow-up attack.
Sullivan, who saw classified video of the strike, previously told Alaska’s News Source in December he believed actions taken by the U.S. did not violate international law.
“I support them doing it, but they have to get it right,” he said. “I think so far they’re getting it right.”
Murkowski, who has not seen the video, previously said at an Anchorage press event the takeaways on that strike’s legality seem to be divided along party lines.
“I spoke to a colleague who is on the Intelligence Committee, a Republican, and I spoke to a colleague, a Democrat, who is on the Senate Armed Services Committee … their recollection or their retelling of what they saw [was] vastly different.”
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Copyright 2026 KTUU. All rights reserved.
Alaska
National Native helpline for domestic violence and sexual assault to open Alaska-specific service
Alaska
Dozens of vehicle accidents reported, Anchorage after-school activities canceled, as snowfall buries Southcentral Alaska
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – Up to a foot of snow has fallen in areas across Southcentral as of Tuesday, with more expected into Wednesday morning.
All sports and after-school activities — except high school basketball and hockey activities — were canceled Tuesday for the Anchorage School District. The decision was made to allow crews to clear school parking lots and manage traffic for snow removal, district officials said.
“These efforts are critical to ensuring schools can safely remain open [Wednesday],” ASD said in a statement.
The Anchorage Police Department’s accident count for the past two days shows there have been 55 car accidents since Monday, as of 9:45 a.m. Tuesday. In addition, there have been 86 vehicles in distress reported by the department.
The snowfall — which has brought up to 13 inches along areas of Turnagain Arm and 12 inches in Wasilla — is expected to continue Tuesday, according to latest forecast models. Numerous winter weather alerts are in effect, and inland areas of Southcentral could see winds up to 25 mph, with coastal areas potentially seeing winds over 45 mph.
Some areas of Southcentral could see more than 20 inches of snowfall by Wednesday, with the Anchorage and Eagle River Hillsides, as well as the foothills of the Talkeetna Mountain, among the areas seeing the most snowfall.
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Copyright 2026 KTUU. All rights reserved.
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