Evacuees detail harrowing scenes of flooding in coastal Alaska villages as airlift continues

ANCHORAGE Alaska AP The house rocked as though an earthquake had struck and suddenly it was floating Water seeped in through the front door and waves smacked the big glass window From the lone dry room where Alexie Stone and his brothers and children gathered he could look outside and see under the water like an aquarium A shed drifted toward them threatening to shatter the glass but turned away before it hit The house came to rest just a minimal feet away from where it previously stood after another building blocked its path But it remains uninhabitable along with largest part of the rest of Stone s Alaska Native village of Kipnuk following an immense storm surge that flooded coastal parts of western Alaska left one person dead and two missing and prompted a huge evacuation effort to airlift more than residents to safety In our village we d say that we re Native strong we have Native pride and nothing can break us down But this is the hardest that we went through Stone declared Thursday outside the Alaska Airlines Center an arena in Anchorage where he and hundreds of others were being sheltered Everybody s taking care of everybody in there We re all thankful that we re all alive The remnants of Typhoon Halong brought record high water to low-lying Alaska Native communities last weekend and washed away homes particular with people inside Makeshift shelters were expeditiously established and swelled to hold about people an extraordinary number in a sparsely populated region where communities are reachable only by air or water this time of year Multiple of the evacuees were flown first to Bethel a regional hub of people But personnel sought to relocate them as shelters there approached quota Stone and his family spent several nights sleeping on the floor of the Kipnuk school library before being flown to Bethel and then on to Anchorage about miles kilometers east of the villages They arrived strapped into the floor of a huge military transfer plane with hundreds of other evacuees Another military plane carrying evacuees was due to arrive at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson on Thursday evening Two villages were hit hard The hardest-hit communities Kipnuk and Kwigillingok saw water levels more than feet meters above the highest normal tide line Particular homes were destroyed in Kipnuk a village of about people and in Kwigillingok three dozen homes drifted away Cellphone organization had been restored in Kwigillingok by Thursday leadership explained and restrooms were again working at the school there where about people had sheltered overnight Tuesday Damage was also serious in other villages Water sewer and well systems were inoperable in Napaskiak according to a announcement from the Federal Urgency Management Agency Jeremy Zidek a spokesperson with the state urgency management office revealed he did not know how long the evacuation would take and announced agents were looking for additional shelters The aim is to get people from congregate shelters into hotel rooms or dormitories he announced The dilemma unfolding in southwest Alaska has drawn attention to Trump administration cuts to grants aimed at helping small mostly Indigenous villages prepare for storms or mitigate tragedy risks For example a million U S Environmental Protection Agency grant to Kipnuk which was inundated by floodwaters was terminated by the Trump administration a move challenged by environmental groups The grant was intended to protect the boardwalk residents use to get around the region as well as feet meters of river from erosion according to a federal website that tracks establishment spending Determined to rebuild While still in Kipnuk Stone spent his days trying to help out he commented He would make trips to the airport to pick up water or food that had been sent by other villages and deliver it to the school He worked to help rebuild the boardwalks on which residents get around And when he had time he would return to his battered house trying to clean up particular of the waterlogged clothing and electronics the floodwaters had tossed about But the damage is extensive Fuel and stove oil leaked from tanks and the odor of petroleum permeates the entire town he revealed Like other villagers in the region his family lost stores of food intended to help them get through the winter the refrigerator and three freezers full of halibut salmon moose and goose Stone s mother Julia Stone is a village police officer in Kipnuk She was working at the school last weekend when the winds suddenly picked up people suddenly began arriving at the building and her on-call police cellphone begin ringing with calls from people in need particular reporting that their houses were floating She tried to reach search and rescue teams and others to determine if there were available boats to help but the situation was chaos she commented Her voice broke during an interview Thursday in Anchorage as she thanked those at the school who helped with the response It s a nightmare what we went through but I thank God we are together she announced Stone disclosed he evacuated with the clothes on his back Largest part of the rest of what he owned was soaked and reeked of fuel The Red Cross provided cots blankets and hygiene supplies in Anchorage he explained and he went out to a thrift store on Thursday to get more clothes two shirts a sweater two pairs of pants and tennis shoes He is not sure when it might be safe to return to Kipnuk Everybody here that came from Kipnuk they re pretty strong Stone mentioned If we have to start over we have to start over Johnson announced from Seattle Associated Press writer Becky Bohrer in Juneau contributed Source