Alaska
Large-scale evacuations underway from storm-battered Western Alaska villages
Hundreds of people were being evacuated from the Western Alaska village of Kipnuk Wednesday after residents were told to pack a single bag and leave the community, one of the hardest hit by a catastrophic storm that deluged swaths of the Yukon-Kuskokwim region over the weekend.
The storm left housing uninhabitable and utilities inoperable in communities around the region, displacing more than 1,000 from their homes. Just over 1,300 people were sheltering in schools in eight communities as of Tuesday evening, according to an Alaska State Emergency Operations Center situation report.
Kipnuk, a Yup’ik community of about 700 near the Bering Sea coast, suffered the most extreme storm damage along with Kwigillingok, located at the mouth of the Kuskokwim River.
The storm has claimed at least one life and left two people missing, all in Kwigillingok. Alaska State Troopers said three family members were last seen in a house that broke loose and floated toward the Bering Sea amid record tidal surges.
The body of 67-year-old Ella Mae Kashatok was recovered Monday. Still missing are Vernon Pavil, 71, and Chester Kashatok, 41. The search for their floating house covered roughly 88 square miles miles, emergency officials say.
In Kipnuk as many as 600 residents spent several nights at a shelter in the local school. The shelter’s occupants were told Wednesday they must leave, according to several village residents.
So far, Kipnuk is the only village known to be under such a broad evacuation notice. There were unconfirmed reports Wednesday of a similar mass evacuation in Kwigillingok, a Yup’ik village of about 400 residents.
The state has not issued any mandatory evacuation orders, said Jeremy Zidek, a spokesperson for the Alaska Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.
However, Kipnuk and Kwigillingok “have asked the state and the Alaska National Guard to support a full evacuation of both communities,” Zidek said Wednesday.
At least some evacuees are going to Anchorage: The University of Alaska Anchorage will shelter 400 displaced residents in the Alaska Airlines Center arena on campus with the help of the American Red Cross.
People are expected to arrive in Anchorage as early as Wednesday evening, according to Katie Bender, director of marketing and communications at UAA. She said it is still unclear how many residents will arrive, or which villages they have evacuated from.
As of Tuesday evening, hundreds of people were sheltering in schools across numerous villages, including 400 people in Kwigillingok, 50 in Napakiak, 109 in Nightmute, 70 in Tuntutuliak, 50 in Chefornak and 30 in Nunam Iqua, according to the state’s situation report issued Wednesday.
The storm damaged nearly all homes in Kipnuk, located 98 miles southwest of Bethel. Conditions were deteriorating at the school, where 600 people sheltered last night, according to the emergency operations center report.
The community had asked for more water and “assistance with a failing school generator,” the report said. The National Weather Service was also predicting another, albeit weaker, storm would move over the region by late Wednesday night.
On Wednesday, officials visited the remaining residents at the school to announce a mandatory evacuation, according to videos posted online by Buggy Carl, a Kipnuk resident and emergency response official.
People are hurting, he tells people watching the video, one of several he’s made to film updates of the on-the-ground situation in the community.
“So many tears. Just crying their eyes out. I understand their pain and frustration, but this is for their own safety,” Carl says to the camera.
Jacqui Lang, a teacher at the Chief Paul Memorial School in Kipnuk, said many residents don’t want to go. All have been told they have to leave their pets and almost all belongings behind.
Evacuation “is no longer optional,” she said. “They’re saying that the school is not safe.”
People were being flown out on large Black Hawk helicopters as well as smaller private planes, Lang said.
On Wednesday, she was trying to coordinate with a Bethel pet rescue to get the animals still in the village out, putting on duct-tape collars with owner information to help owners find animals if an airlift can be arranged.
“People are devastated,” Lang said. “They don’t want to leave.”
Most of the people being flown out of the remote villages, accessible only by air, are headed first for the regional hub of Bethel, where an armory building is set up to house around 100 evacuees, and where donations have been piling up. Other evacuees have said they want to join family members in neighboring, less-damaged communities in the region, Lang said.
More short- and long-term plans for sheltering evacuees will be announced soon, said Zidek, the state emergency management spokesperson.
“We’re looking at capacity in other communities around the state that could absorb some of the folks that are being evacuated,” he said.
The goal, Zidek said, will also be to get less-damaged homes livable before winter sets in.
“We’re going to look to do that in every community that we can, to get people back into their homes,” he said. “We’re preparing to provide intermediate and long term shelter to folks that cannot return to their home in the short term.”
Daily News reporter Bella Biondini contributed.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – The Egan Civic and Convention Center in downtown Anchorage closed Tuesday night as a shelter for hundreds of Alaskans displaced by ex-Typhoon Halong last month.
The announcement came as over 300 people who were evacuated from Western Alaska communities were being moved from both the Egan Center and Alaska Airlines Center on the University of Alaska Anchorage campus into private, non-congregate shelters.
Shelter operations from the Egan moved to the Spenard Community Recreation Center at 2020 West 48th Avenue. That location will be open daily from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., according to the Alaska Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.
The strong storm made landfall over Oct. 11-12 on Alaska’s western coast, leaving a path of destruction in dozens of villages in the Kuskokwim delta area. One person was confirmed dead and two others were still missing.
The Spenard rec center shelter will be temporary, according to Bryan Fisher, director of the homeland security division.
“Closing the Egan Center doesn’t signal the end of our shelter support mission or diminish the urgent need to transition more people into non-congregate housing,” Fisher said in a prepared release.
While shelter operations ended at the Egan Center, the building will still be used as a United States Postal Service center for incoming mail for those displaced by Halong. That service will stop at the end of November, authorities said.
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A new center opened Monday to provide disaster recovery services to Western Alaska residents displaced by ex-Typhoon Halong who evacuated to the Anchorage area, state officials said.
Available services at the hub include help with state and federal disaster recovery aid applications, business and homeowner loan application support, social services, and tribal identification replacement, the State Emergency Operations Center said in a statement Monday. State officials said the effort is in cooperation with Calista Corp.
The Disaster Assistance Center, located in the Calista building at 1400 W. Benson Blvd, Suite 110, will be open weekdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. through Nov. 14, according to emergency officials. Evacuees needing a ride to the center can contact Alaska 211 by dialing 211 or 1-800-478-2221, emailing alaska211@ak.org or visiting alaska211.org.
Similar services have been offered in Bethel, where some displaced by last month’s disastrous Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta storm have also sought shelter.
State emergency officials in an update Sunday said that there have been 1,280 applications for state individual assistance and 491 applications for Federal Emergency Management Agency aid. The federal aid became available after President Donald Trump’s Oct. 22 federal disaster declaration.
The deadline for those seeking state aid is Dec. 9. It is Dec. 22 for anyone applying for federal assistance.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – A planetarium at the University of Alaska Museum of the North in Fairbanks has been in the works for years. And it’s only a few months away from opening, according to University of Alaska Museum of the North Director Patrick Druckenmiller.
It has been an idea for decades, but construction began about a year ago on the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ campus in collaboration with the Geophysical Institute, Druckenmiller said.
“What this facility will essentially allow us to do, is welcome, when thousands of people per year that come to our museum an opportunity to see things like the Aurora in a planetarium setting. Because, of course, that’s not something they’re going to see when they’re visiting in the summer. But it’s also going to be the coolest, newest classroom on the UAF campus,” he said.
Druckenmiller said it will be Interior Alaska’s first planetarium.
“There are three others in the state, two in Anchorage, one in Juneau,” he said. “It’s also going to be the northernmost planetarium in North America, which is also kind of a cool claim to fame for our facility.”
The 65-seat planetarium is a roughly 5,700 square foot addition to the existing museum, he said.
“When you walk into the planetarium space, which you’re going to see is this big dome above your head. It’s about 11 meters, or about 36 feet, in diameter. And it’s actually sort of suspended from the ceiling. And it’s tilted at about a 17-degree angle towards the front of the room. That’s to help make people feel comfortable looking up and not having to crank their neck to look up at the sky,” he said.
The planetarium’s content will not be strictly space related.
“We intend to showcase a lot of other really cool aspects of things relating to Alaska and the Arctic. And of course, it’s indigenous peoples,” he said.
Druckenmiller is excited for the opportunity to use the planetarium to highlight University of Alaska research.
“For example, the Geophysical Institute is a major place for research into the atmosphere, other geophysical phenomena, including the aurora, solar physics, you name it,” he said. “This planetarium is now going to be a place to share some of that cool science, rather than us just simply bringing in science from elsewhere. We’re doing it here in Alaska. So, it’s a wonderful showcase for Alaskan-based research.”
The bulk of the building construction cost was paid for by two longtime Fairbanks residents.
Walt and Marita Babula’s $7.4 million donation funded much of the construction of the building, Druckenmiller said.
The planetarium will be named after them, the university said.
The Babulas want the planetarium to “enable space science education opportunities for K-12 and higher education students,” according to a statement from a university press release.
“We also envision the planetarium as a place that will spark the curiosity of Alaskans and visitors from around the globe about our Alaska culture and vast universe,” they continued.
“They, out of the incredible generosity of their heart, really wanted the museum to be a place where we could also have a planetarium to share all the wonderful things about space science and astronomy, particularly with the kids that live here in interior Alaska,” Druckenmiller said.
Other donors include the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust, as well as Sarah and Cary Keller who have been longtime UAF supporters, according to the university. Michael and Lynn Rice Estate, Davis Constructors & Engineers and RESPEC also contributed to the project.
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