Alaska storm damage so bad many evacuees won’t go home for at least 18 months, governor says

In this photo provided by Jacqui Lang, a dog is rescued in Kipnuk, Alaska, Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2025, to be flown to an animal shelter in Bethel, Alaska, as its owner had evacuated. (Jacqui Lang via AP)

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Damage to remote Alaska villages hammered by flooding last weekend is so extreme that many of the more than 2,000 people displaced won’t be able to return to their homes for at least 18 months, Gov. Mike Dunleavy said in a request to the White House for a major disaster declaration.

In one of the hardest hit villages, Kipnuk, an initial assessment showed that 121 or homes — or 90 per cent of the total — have been destroyed, Dunleavy wrote. In Kwigillingok, where three dozen homes floated away, slightly more than one-third of the residences are uninhabitable.

The remnants of Typhoon Halong struck the area with the ferocity of a Category 2 hurricane, Dunleavy said, sending a surge of high surf into the low-lying region. One person was killed, two remain missing, and rescue crews plucked dozens of people from their homes as they floated away.

Officials have been scrambling to airlift people from the inundated Alaska Native villages. Hundreds of evacuees have been flown to Anchorage on military transport flights, with additional flights planned Friday and Saturday. Dunleavy said he expects more than 1,500 people to be relocated to major cities in the state.

The Associated Press