Alaska
More Storms Heading To Decimated Alaska Villages | Weather.com
Dozens Rescued, One Dead As Storm Slams Alaska
More rain and wind were forecast Wednesday along the Alaskan coast where two tiny villages were decimated by the remnants of Typhoon Halong and officials were scrambling to find shelter for more than 1,500 people driven from their homes.
The weekend storm brought high winds and surf that battered the low-lying Alaska Native communities along the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta in the southwestern part of the state, nearly 500 miles (800 km) from Anchorage. At least one person was killed and two were missing. The Coast Guard plucked two dozen people from their homes after the structures floated out to sea.
Hundreds were staying in school shelters, including one with no working toilets, officials said. The weather system followed a storm that struck parts of western Alaska days earlier.
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Across the region, more than 1,500 people were displaced. Dozens were flown to a shelter set up in the National Guard armory in the regional hub city of Bethel, a community of 6,000 people, and officials were considering flying evacuees to longer-term shelter or emergency housing in Fairbanks and Anchorage.
In this photo provided by Alaska National Guard, members of the Alaska National Guard prepare for departure from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, Monday, Oct. 13, 2025, during storm response operations after Typhoon Halong’s landfall.
(Capt. Balinda O’Neal/Alaska National Guard via AP)
The hardest-hit communities included Kipnuk, population 715, and Kwigillingok, population 380. They are off the state’s main road system and reachable this time of year only by water or by air.
“It’s catastrophic in Kipnuk. Let’s not paint any other picture,” Mark Roberts, incident commander with the state emergency management division, told a news conference Tuesday. “We are doing everything we can to continue to support that community, but it is as bad as you can think.”
Heartbreaking Moment
Among those awaiting evacuation to Bethel on Tuesday was Brea Paul of Kipnuk, who said in a text message that she had seen about 20 homes floating away through the moonlight on Saturday night.
“Some houses would blink their phone lights at us like they were asking for help but we couldn’t even do anything,” she wrote.
The following morning, she recorded video of a house submerged nearly to its roofline as it floated past her home.
Paul and her neighbors had a long meeting in the local school gym on Monday night. They sang songs as they tried to figure out what to do next, she said. Paul wasn’t sure where she would go.
“It’s so heartbreaking saying goodbye to our community members not knowing when we’d get to see each other,” she said.
About 30 miles away in Kwigillingok, one woman was found dead and authorities on Monday night called off the search for two men whose home floated away.
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The school was the only facility in town with full power, but it had no working toilet and 400 people stayed there Monday night. Workers were trying to fix the bathrooms; a situation report from the state emergency operations center on Tuesday noted that portable toilets, or “honey buckets,” were being used.
A preliminary assessment showed every home in the village was damaged by the storm, with about three dozen having drifted from their foundations, the emergency management office said.
Power systems flooded in Napakiak, and severe erosion was reported in Toksook Bay. In Nightmute, officials said fuel drums were reported floating in the community, and there was a scent of fuel in the air and a sheen on the water.
The National Guard was activated to help with the emergency response, and crews were trying to take advantage of any breaks in the weather to fly in food, water, generators and communication equipment.
In this photo provided by Alaska National Guard, members of the Alaska National Guard arrive in Kotzebue, Alaska, Monday, Oct. 13, 2025, to support operations responding to the damage caused by Typhoon Halong.
(Alaska National Guard via AP))
Long Road To Recovery Ahead
Officials warned of a long road to recovery and a need for continued support for the hardest-hit communities. Most rebuilding supplies would have to be transported in and there is little time left with winter just around the corner.
“Indigenous communities in Alaska are resilient,” said Rick Thoman, an Alaska climate specialist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. “But, you know, when you have an entire community where effectively every house is damaged and many of them will be uninhabitable with winter knocking at the door now, there’s only so much that any individual or any small community can do.”
Thoman said the storm was likely fueled by the warm surface waters of the Pacific Ocean, which has been heating up because of human-caused climate change and making storms more intense.
The remnants of another storm, Typhoon Merbok, caused damage across a massive swath of western Alaska three years ago.
ANCHORAGE, AK (Alaska’s News Source) –
Alaska’s Weather Source is continuing the First Alerts for sections of southcentral and most of southeast Alaska Sunday night to Monday.
High wind warnings are still in effect for the Matanuska Valley’s Palmer-Wasilla area. Winds gusted to 83 mph in Palmer Sunday afternoon, with an 80 mph gust on the Glenn highway where it veers to the Parks highway to Wasilla. Northeast winds 35 to 50 mph, with gusts between 75 and 80 mph are still expected Sunday into Monday. The high wind warning is set to expire at 9 pm Monday.
Valdez and the Thompson Pass area are also under a High Wind Warning through noon Monday. Valdez, the town could see east winds 30, gusting to 65 mph and Thompson pass saw a 76 mph gust Sunday, but the wind could still gust to 80 mph.
Deep cold continues to grip interior Alaska, where low temperatures will drop to the 30s to 40s below zero. Daytime highs are going to be in the minus 20s range. This is the kind of cold that can cause human and mechanical issues. Take precautions in clothing, and plug in vehicles when possible.
And the First Alert extends to Monday in southeast Alaska. The region is getting slogged by snow, and rain! Hoonah as of Sunday, reported 36 inches, or 3 feet of snow! Amounts ranged from 18 to 31 from Juneau to Douglas and Auke Bay. Yakutat hit 23 inches Sunday with additional heavy amounts to come. Winter storm warnings encompass the northern Gulf of Alaska, northern panhandle and through Juneau. The southern end of the region will see rain, heavy at times. This has resulted in a flood watch that will extend into Monday as well.
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ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – Snow in Southeast is leading to closures in the Juneau area and beyond.
The City and Borough of Juneau (CBJ) said online that CBJ facilities and services are closed or have limited operations Sunday “due to the severe winter weather in Juneau.”
It said all Juneau Public libraries and Juneau Parks & Recreation facilities are closed, but the Shéiyi X̱aat Hit Youth Shelter is still open.
Capital Transit is using its winter routes, the CBJ said. And multiple routes are not running.
And Fish Creek Road, which is the access point for Eaglecrest Ski Area, is closed, leading to the ski area closing as well.
“Due to the amount of snow that has fallen CBJ needs to keep essential roads clear and accessible for emergency services. Fish Creek Road is currently a lower-priority road for snow removal. With Fish Creek Road closed and access to the mountain unavailable, our ski area will be closed today 12/28/25. Guest safety is our number one priority,” the ski area wrote online.
Around noon Sunday, the Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Alaska 511 page has multiple roads in the area listed as “very difficult” road conditions, including parts of the Douglas and Glacier Highways.
Further north, Haines Road is listed as “very difficult.” And the Klondike Highway leading in and out of Skagway is closed. DOT said it is “due to blizzard conditions and an elevated avalanche hazard.”
The road will stay closed overnight and DOT plans to assess the conditions Monday morning.
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Copyright 2025 KTUU. All rights reserved.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – New data shows the number of confirmed Alaska flu cases more than doubled from the last report, according to the Alaska Department of Health (DOH) snapshot data for the week of Dec. 20.
Flu cases have been on the rise since mid-November, according to the updated Alaska Department of Health Respiratory Virus Snapshot published Dec. 20, 2025. This December update saw the largest jump in cases since the increase started, going from 391 lab-confirmed cases the week of Dec. 13 to 816 the week of Dec. 20.
It’s quite a rise from the same time last year, which reported only 108 lab-confirmed cases in the week of Dec. 21, 2024, but the next week, which had the reporting date of Dec. 28, 2024, saw a jump in cases to 484.
And this past week’s numbers rivals the 2025 peak at 990 cases reported March 1, 2025, according to the DOH.
The highest spike of influenza cases reported over the past five years was on Dec. 13, 2022, with 1,621 cases reported that week.
The state reported in the Alaska Influenza Surveillance Summary that last year Alaska saw a “higher number of reported cases than in previous years, with activity more concentrated in a pronounced peak.”
A national trend
The CDC said the flu season is just starting and is potentially gearing up to be substantial.
“I don’t think I ever remember seeing it this severe, this soon,” Dr. Suchitra Rao, an infectious disease specialist at Children’s Hospital Colorado in Aurora, told NBC News. “Our emergency department is full of kids coming in with the flu.”
The CDC said the flu is increasing across the country, but that the timing “is similar to several past seasons.”
The CDC estimates during this season there have been 4.6 million flu cases, 49,000 hospitalizations (a little over 1% of cases) and 1,900 deaths.
Those numbers also rival data from last year, where the CDC estimated 5.3 million cases, 63,000 hospitalizations and 2,700 deaths.
COVID-19 & RSV
The flu is not the only respiratory virus the state is tracking.
As of the latest Department of Health snapshot, 50 cases of COVID-19 were reported have been reported for the week of Dec. 20, a drop from last year’s report of 82 cases during the same time period, the DOH reported.
RSV cases are also lower than previous years right now.
During the week of Dec. 20, 75 cases of RSV were reported, which is much less than the 266 reported cases the same time last year, according to the DOH.
Data over the past five years from the Department of Health shows the months between December and March are when RSV is most active in Alaska, peaking between the last weeks of December to the first weeks of January.
How to stay healthy
The CDC lists several ways to help prevent spreading or catching the flu, but said the “single best way to reduce the risk of seasonal flu and its potentially serious complications is to get vaccinated each year.”
While data from the CDC shows getting vaccinated could decrease a visit to the doctor by 40 to 60%, it doesn’t mean you won’t get sick.
This makes strategies that protect yourself and others from spreading germs all the more important.
Tips from the CDC include: avoiding close contact, staying home if sick, covering mouth and nose (even if not sick), washing hands, avoiding touching eyes, nose or mouth, taking steps for cleaner air and practicing good hygiene.
See a spelling or grammar error? Report it to web@ktuu.com
Copyright 2025 KTUU. All rights reserved.
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