pummeled as many as 15 villages<\/a> across the Yukon-Kuskokwim (YK) delta, an expanse the size of Oregon and where the Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers meet the Bering Sea.<\/p>\nAs Saturday turned to Sunday 11 October, hurricane-force winds unleashed towering waves that sent rivers and sloughs spilling over their banks. Kwigillingok saw record tides \u2013 above 6 ft. Kusilvak registered category 2 winds at 107mph (172.2km\/h). Homes were swept away, power lines were downed, and fuel tanks spilled into winding wetlands.<\/p>\n
![\"Alaskan](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1920.png\")
Alaskan left floating in his home after Typhoon rips it from foundations \u2013 video<\/p>\n
One home that washed ashore belonged to 67-year-old Ella Mae Kashatok. Her body was recovered the next day, but her brother and son remain missing.<\/p>\n
The disaster underscored the growing dangers in the YK delta: thawing permafrost, chronic erosion and increased flooding from storms that are becoming stronger and more frequent.<\/p>\n
The region, one of six major climate impact zones in Alaska, sits atop fragile, sponge-like tundra prone to what the Yup\u2019ik describe as vulnerable to usteq \u2013 catastrophic land collapse.<\/p>\n
The substantial damage from Halong to so many Indigenous villages at once strikes at the heart of the delta\u2019s ancient ties to these tundra lands. Murky floodwaters submerged berry-picking sites and hunting trails where valuable knowledge has been passed down for generations \u2013 the kind of lessons that aren\u2019t taught in schools. It unearthed elders\u2019 graves, a symbolic wound in a place where land and kinship are inseparable.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know this land,\u201d said Tony Paul, 22, from neighboring Kipnuk, speaking from the school porch, one of few buildings the storm spared.<\/p>\n
State emergency officials estimate about 90% of the village\u2019s homes were destroyed, and half its boardwalks snapped like twigs, making Kipnuk the hardest hit. Power lines were down, and Paul joined a small crew determined to restore them.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome people want to come back,\u201d he said. \u201cThey didn\u2019t want to go.\u201d<\/p>\n
Evacuated residents from the village of Nightmute, Alaska, exit a military helicopter in Bethel, Alaska. Photograph: Marc Lester\/AP<\/p>\n
Almost all 700 residents were evacuated by military aircraft, and some were dramatically airlifted from their homes. Paul used his boat to rescue a few villagers, which is what may have spared it from the storm. He\u2019s been looking for tools that had floated away and planned to search using the same boat he had used to rescue people. It had become the crew\u2019s most valuable asset.<\/p>\n
The Yukon-Kuskokwim delta has long faced a climate dilemma. Warming here is happening nearly four times faster than the global average, according to Noaa, drawing both attention and government funding.<\/p>\n
But such recognition has also brought new strains and inflamed old ones, not least by the dismantling of climate programs by the Trump administration, and the still painstaking process for many villages to access much needed funds to defend themselves.<\/p>\n
Two river villages, Newtok and Napakiak, each received $25m from the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 2022. Newtok completed the first full-scale climate migration in North America, last year, moving nine miles across the Ninglick River to Mertarvik. Napakiak\u2019s move is ongoing and likely to cost hundreds of millions of dollars.<\/p>\n
Yet such awards can be misleading.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is very difficult for these communities to get grants because they\u2019re very competitive,\u201d said Sheryl Musgrove, of the Alaska Institute for Justice or AIJ. \u201cAnd these villages are subsistence-based villages. They don\u2019t have a way to bring money in a lot of times.\u201d<\/p>\n
With the help of AIJ, Kipnuk secured its first-ever Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) grant \u2013 $20m to fight coastal erosion \u2013 but the Trump administration canceled it in May. A Biden-era disaster declaration also unlocked Fema funds, but tribal leaders say none have arrived.<\/p>\n
As news about Halong started to circulate, and Kipnuk\u2019s grant rescission made headlines, Lee Zeldin, the EPA administrator, turned to X, defending the cancellation.<\/p>\n
\u201c[Twenty]-million of hardworking US tax dollars are currently sitting in the US treasury instead of swept into the Kuskokwim River,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Musgrove noted he couldn\u2019t even name the right river. The Indigenous village of Kipnuk borders the Kugkaktlik River, not the Kuskokwim.<\/p>\n
Zacharias John, 19, looks at a four-wheeler that came to rest under a boardwalk in the village of Kipnuk, Alaska. Photograph: Marc Lester\/AP<\/p>\n
\u201cThese villages are very, very poor,\u201d she said. \u201cThey rely on assistance like EPA grants to get things done.\u201d<\/p>\n
At a press conference in Anchorage held over the weekend, Lisa Murkowski, an Alaska senator, quoted a Chinese proverb: \u201cThe best time to plant a tree is yesterday. The next best time is now.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, let\u2019s get moving, now,\u201d she said, a marked shift from three years earlier when, after Typhoon Merbok, she questioned whether Alaska should prepare for extreme weather at all.<\/p>\n
After Halong, there was no such doubt. \u201cIt\u2019s going to take resources and a combined effort,\u201d Murkowski said. She praised Mike Dunleavy, the governor of Alaska, for requesting a federal disaster declaration from Donald Trump to activate Fema aid for as many as 50 coastal communities.<\/p>\n
Lingering questions remain \u2013 will Kipnuk ever get rebuilt? If not, what will become of the community?<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is what we have been dreading for years \u2013 decades,\u201d said Rick Thoman, a climate scientist. \u201cThese northward-moving typhoons and what lies in its path: is that something we can expect more of? We don\u2019t know. And Alaskans need to know.\u201d<\/p>\n
He emphasized one certainty: \u201cWe have to hope that the tribes are front and center in these conversations.\u201d<\/p>\n
Late last week, the last evacuees arrived in Anchorage by military plane with many taken to shelters established in the city. Outside at a downtown shelter, Lacey Paul, Kipnuk\u2019s longtime school secretary, reunited with her auburn lap dog, Shiny, left behind during the flood. Her five-year-old daughter spoke to the dog in Yup\u2019ik, filling the rainy night with laughter.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur dog is bilingual,\u201d her mother said, holding Shiny close.<\/p>\n
Perhaps it was that same comfort Winkelman sought as he flew his Super Cub over the storm-ravaged Delta days later. The land had begun to heal itself. Over time, his new mission was to help his people do the same.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Silver-lined clouds hung over the Yup\u2019ik village of Kwigillingok the Thursday before a weekend storm was forecast to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":95220,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[273,111,139,69,147],"class_list":{"0":"post-95219","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-newzealand","11":"tag-nz","12":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95219\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}