FILE – In this undated photo provided by the United States Geological Survey, permafrost forms a grid-like pattern in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, managed by the Bureau of Land Management on Alaska’s North Slope. (David W. Houseknecht/United States Geological Survey via AP, File)
AP- Congress has passed a measure to overturn a plan enacted during the Biden administration that put off limits to oil and gas leasing nearly half a vast petroleum reserve in Alaska. Critics see the vote as political meddling that creates confusion over the future management of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.
Tuesday’s House vote followed passage by the Senate during the government shutdown of the resolution disapproving a management plan for the reserve that was finalized in 2022 under then-President Joe Biden. The offices of Alaska’s Republican congressional delegation members have said the resolution “fulfills the objectives” of an Alaska-specific executive order signed by President Donald Trump earlier this year. The executive order called for reinstating a plan dating to the first Trump administration that sought to make available for leasing about 80% of the reserve.
The measure next goes to Trump for consideration.
There has been outsized attention on Alaska since Trump’s return to office, with moves to expand development of oil and gas and other resources cheered by state political leaders who had considered the Biden administration overly restrictive in its approach.
The votes are among the latest taken under the Congressional Review Act that are aimed at nullifying land management plans adopted under Biden. A statement from the congressional delegation last month said the review act provides an expedited way to overturn certain federal rules and forbids an agency from issuing another substantially similar rule unless it’s authorized by law.
But Alex Cohen, director of government affairs for the Alaska Wilderness League, called use of the act a “super, super blunt instrument.” Regulatory policy instead requires “very careful, considered stakeholder engagement, scientific analysis,” he said.
The approach taken by Congress also raises questions about what constitutes a substantially similar rule, Cohen said, adding there is a lack of clarity around what happens when a plan is overturned.
A bill passed earlier this year calls for oil and gas lease sales in the petroleum reserve, for which the last sale was held in 2019, and in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Major companies sat out the first two lease sales held for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge; the first was at the end of Trump’s first term and the second near the end of Biden’s.
Rayann Martin, a 10-year-old displaced from the village of Kipnuk by ex-Typhoon Halong, left, talks with new classmate Lilly Loewen, 10, right, as they work in the Yup’ik language at College Gate Elementary, Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025, in Anchorage, Alaska. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
AP- Rayann Martin sat in a classroom hundreds of miles from her devastated Alaska Native village and held up 10 fingers when the teacher asked the pupils how old they were.
“Ten — how do you say 10 in Yup’ik?” the teacher asked.
“Qula!” the students answered in unison.
Martin and her family were among hundreds of people airlifted to Anchorage, the state’s largest city, after the remnants of Typhoon Halong inundated their small coastal villages along the Bering Sea last month, dislodging dozens of homes and floating them away — many with people inside. The floods left nearly 700 homes destroyed or heavily damaged. One person died, two remain missing.
As the residents grapple with uprooted lives very different from the traditional ones they left, some of the children are finding a measure of familiarity in a school-based immersion program that focuses on their Yup’ik language and culture — one of two such programs in the state.
“I’m learning more Yup’ik,” said Martin, who added that she’s using the language to communicate with her mother, teachers and classmates. “I usually speak more Yup’ik in villages, but mostly more English in cities.”
There are more than 100 languages spoken in the homes of Anchorage School District students. Yup’ik, which is spoken by about 10,000 people in the state, is the fifth most common. The district adopted its first language immersion program — Japanese — in 1989, and subsequently added Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, German, French and Russian.
After many requests from parents, the district obtained a federal grant and added a K-12 Yup’ik immersion program about nine years ago. The students in the first class are now eighth-graders. The program is based at College Gate Elementary and Wendler Middle School.
A principal’s connection makes a difference
The principal at College Gate Elementary, Darrell Berntsen, is himself Alaska Native — Sugpiaq, from Kodiak Island, south of Anchorage. His mother was 12 years old in 1964 when the magnitude-9.2 Great Alaska Earthquake and an ensuing tsunami devastated her village of Old Harbor. He recalls her stories of joining other villagers at high ground and watching as the surge of water carried homes out to sea.
His mother and her family evacuated to a shelter in Anchorage, but returned to Kodiak Island when Old Harbor was rebuilt. Berntsen grew up living a subsistence life — “the greatest time of my life was being able to go out duck hunting, go out deer hunting,” he said — and he understands what the evacuees from Kipnuk, Kwigillingok and other damaged villages have left behind.
He has also long had an interest in preserving Alaska Native culture and languages. His ex-wife’s grandmother, Marie Smith Jones, was the last fluent speaker of Eyak, an indigenous language from south-central Alaska, when she died in 2008. His uncles had their hands slapped when they spoke their indigenous Alutiiq language at school.
As the evacuees arrived in Anchorage in the days after last month’s flooding, Berntsen greeted them at an arena where the Red Cross had set up a shelter. He invited families to enroll their children in the Yup’ik immersion program. Many of the parents showed him photos of the duck, goose, moose, seal or other traditional foods they had saved for the winter — stockpiles that washed away or spoiled in the flood.
“Listening is a big part of our culture — hearing their stories, letting them know that, ‘Hey, I live here in Anchorage, I’m running one of my schools, the Yup’ik immersion program, you guys are welcome at our school,’” Berntsen said. “Do everything we can to make them feel comfortable in the most uncomfortable situation that they’ve ever been through.”
Displaced students join Yup’ik immersion classes
Some 170 evacuated children have enrolled in the Anchorage School District — 71 of them in the Yup’ik immersion program. Once the smallest immersion program in the district, it’s now “booming,” said Brandon Locke, the district’s world language director.
At College Gate, pupils receive instruction in Yup’ik for half the day, including Yup’ik literacy and language as well as science and social studies. The other half is in English, which includes language arts and math classes.
Among the program’s new students is Ellyne Aliralria, a 10-year-old from Kipnuk. During the surge of floodwater the weekend of Oct. 11, she and her family were in a home that floated upriver. The high water also washed away her sister’s grave, she said.
Aliralria likes the immersion program and learning more phrases, even though the Yup’ik dialect being spoken is a bit different from the one she knows.
“I like to do all of them, but some of them are hard,” the fifth-grader said.
Also difficult is adjusting to living in a motel room in a city nearly 500 miles (800 km) from their village on the southwest coast.
“We’re homesick,” she said.
Lilly Loewen, 10, is one of many non-Yup’iks in the program. She said her parents wanted her to participate because “they thought it was really cool.”
“It is just really amazing to get to talk to people in another language other than just what I speak mostly at home,” Loewen said.
Bridging the gap between generations
Berntsen is planning to help the new students acclimate by holding activities such as gym nights or Olympic-style events, featuring activities that mimic Alaska Native hunting and fishing techniques. One example: the seal hop, in which participants assume a plank position and shuffle across the floor to emulate how hunters sneak up on seals napping on the ice.
The Yup’ik immersion program is helping undo some of the damage Western culture did to Alaska Native language and traditions, he said. It’s also bridging the gap of two lost generations: In some cases, the children’s parents or grandparents never learned Yup’ik, but the students can now speak with their great-grandparents, Locke said.
“I took this as a great opportunity for us to give back some of what the trauma had taken from our Indigenous people,” Berntsen said.
NOTN- The City and Borough of Juneau formally accepted Advance Measures Assistance from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, to begin Phase 2 of the temporary flood barrier project along the Mendenhall River, city officials announced Thursday.
This marks the next major step in the city’s ongoing effort to protect homes and infrastructure from recurring glacial outburst floods or GLOFs originating from Suicide Basin.
“The Army Corp has committed to helping, really, really substantially with phase two of our short-term mitigation efforts.” Said Deputy City Manager Robert Barr, “And also, to really pursue a quite ambitious timeline for an enduring solution, solutions that would mitigate GLOFS, in such a way that we won’t be seeing these massive 15, 16 plus flood events. So thats really, really good news.”
The Army Corps will provide 100% federally funded assistance to install new riverbank armoring and temporary flood barriers along unprotected sections of the Mendenhall River. The agency will also offer technical support and repairs to the existing flood barrier system completed earlier this year under Phase 1.
“The Phase 2 project is almost three times the size of the first,” said Mayor Beth Weldon.
Construction could begin as early as next spring, Weldon said.
Thursday night’s briefing also featured presentations from scientists and engineers with the University of Alaska Southeast and the National Weather Service.
“The science presentations we received from the university and the weather service were just phenomenal. They’ve been such impressive partners and so important in this work.” Said Barr, “It’s hard to imagine where we would be were it not for the work, it’s really guided and advised us and everyone that’s been working in emergency response and policy management. So really huge kudos to the university and the geological service and the weather service.”
The Army Corps, and the Natural Resources Conservation Service also presented. The NRCS discussed its Emergency Watershed Protection Program, which could provide funding for potential buyouts of flood-prone properties on View Drive.
Phase 2 of the temporary flood barrier would extend protection to remaining populated areas along the river not covered in the first phase.
CBJ- Several Glacial Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF) mitigation topics will be presented by local experts and federal agencies during a Special GLOF Assembly Committee of the Whole Meeting on Thursday, Oct. 30.
The special meeting agenda includes presentations on recent key studies and understanding of the science of Suicide Basin from University of Alaska Southeast and the National Weather Service. Representatives from two branches within the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) will be present to walk through next steps for their respective programs, including both short-term mitigation and progress toward identification of an enduring solution.
The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) will present on the Emergency Watershed Protection Program and the potential buyout program for View Drive.
Thursday’s meeting will begin at 6 p.m. in City Hall Assembly Chambers and online at the link below. As is standard with Committee of the Whole meetings, public testimony is not included in the agenda, however, members of the public are invited to share questions and comments on the topic at boroughassembly@juneau.gov and emergencyresponse@juneau.gov.
The shore of Kuskokwim Bay on the Bering Sea is seen Monday, Oct. 27, 2025, near Kongiganak, Alaska. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
AP-A fragment of a mask that was preserved for hundreds of years in permafrost sat in the muck of a low tide in the western Alaska community of Quinhagak. Wooden spoons, toys, a fishing lure and other artifacts were strewn, in some cases for miles, along the beach.
The Yup’ik community near the edge of the Bering Sea was spared the widespread devastation wrought by the remnants of Typhoon Halong on its neighbors further west earlier this month. But it suffered a different kind of blow: The lashing winds and storm surge devoured dozens of feet of shoreline, disrupting a culturally significant archaeological site and washing away possibly thousands of unearthed artifacts.
About 1,000 pieces, including wooden masks and tools, were recovered in Quinhagak after the storm ravaged parts of southwest Alaska on Oct. 11 and 12. But many more pieces — perhaps up to 100,000 — were left scattered, said Rick Knecht, an archaeologist who has worked on the Nunalleq, or old village, project for 17 years. That’s roughly the number of pieces previously recovered from the archaeological site.
Meanwhile, freezing temperatures and ice have settled into the region, stalling immediate efforts to find and recover more displaced artifacts on searches done by four-wheeler and foot.
Knecht called what happened a major loss. The site has yielded the world’s largest collection of pre-contact Yup’ik artifacts. Much of what’s known about Yup’ik life before outsiders arrived stems from the project, said Knecht, an emeritus senior lecturer in archaeology at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland.
“When there are holes or disturbances in the site, it’s like trying to read a book with holes in the pages. You’re going to miss a few things,” he said. “And the bigger those holes are, the weaker the story gets. There’s a few holes in the book right now.”
While the name of the original village isn’t known, it was attacked by another village and burned around 1650, he said. Knecht has worked with elders and others in Quinhagak to combine their traditional knowledge with the technology and techniques used by the archaeology teams to study the past together.
Quinhagak has about 800 residents, and subsistence food gathering is critically important to them.
The storm dispersed artifacts from a site long preserved by permafrost, Knecht said. A longstanding concern has been the threat that climate change — melting permafrost, coastal erosion, the potential for more frequent or stronger storms — has posed to the site, he said.
It poses risks to the community itself. Erosion threatens major infrastructure in Quinhagak, including a sewage lagoon, homes and fish camps. Thawing permafrost is also unsettling and undermining buildings, according to a 2024 report from the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium.
The excavation project itself began after artifacts began appearing on the beach around 2007. Part of the site that washed out had been excavated previously.
“There was a big chunk where we’d only gone about halfway down and left it for later because we prioritized parts of the site that were most at risk from marine erosion,” Knecht said.
When he left in July, there was a roughly 30-foot buffer to the sea. The storm took out the buffer and another 30 feet of the site, he said. It also left what Knecht described as piano-sized clumps of tundra on the tidal flats.
Knecht didn’t recognize the site at first after Halong.
“I just drove right by it because all the landmarks I’m used to on the beach and at the site were gone or changed,” he said.
Work to preserve the rescued artifacts has included soaking the marine salts from the wood and placing the pieces in special chemicals that will help them hold together when they dry out, he said. If one were to just take one of the wooden artifacts off the beach and let them dry, they’d “crack to pieces, sometimes in a matter of hours.”
There is a lab at the museum in Quinhagak where the artifacts are kept.
Archaeologists hope to return to the site next spring for a “rescue excavation” of layers exposed by the storm, he said. In some ways, it feels like when teams saw the site in 2009: “We’ve got this raw site with artifacts popping off in every way,” he said. “So we’re starting from scratch again.”
NOTN- Monday evening’s Assembly meeting saw the approval of several major funding measures.
By a narrow 5–4 vote, the Assembly approved transferring $3.5 million from the city’s Seawalk project to Marine Park improvements.
“The $3.5 million transferring from the Seawalk to the marine park improvements passed by the skin of its teeth, five to four.” said Mayor Beth Weldon, “Some of us didn’t like the total cost of the project, but it did pass.”
Members also passed an ordinance shifting $5 million from the proposed Capital Civic Center to maintenance and repairs of the city’s HESCO flood barriers.
Additional funds included $700,000 for St. Vincent de Paul to renovate its sobering center and $125,000 for Juneau’s cold weather emergency shelter, supplementing earlier funding to help house residents from homeless encampments during winter.
“Just so people understand what that does, it allows the homeless encampments to go to the shelter during the winter. We already put $435,000 so we had to add another $125,000.” Said Weldon, “Just so people understand, that’s how much it cost to take care of that. Because sometimes we get accused of not doing anything, we do what we can do is we can give money towards something, and that’s what we do.”
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, center, a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, arrives for a closed-door Republican meeting to advance President Donald Trump's sweeping domestic policy bill, at the Capitol in Washington, Friday, June 27, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, center, a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Friday, June 27, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
AP- The pressure to end the second-longest federal government shutdown is gaining new urgency this week as millions of Americans face the prospect of losing food assistance, more federal workers miss their first full paycheck and recurring delays at airports snarl travel plans.
The building strain on lawmakers to end the impasse was magnified by the nation’s largest federal employee union, which called on Congress to immediately pass a funding bill and ensure workers receive full pay. Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, said the two political parties have made their point.
“It’s time to pass a clean continuing resolution and end this shutdown today. No half measures, and no gamesmanship,” said Kelley, whose union carries considerable political weight with Democratic lawmakers.
Still, Democratic senators, including those representing states with many federal workers, did not appear ready to back down. Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine said he was insisting on commitments from the White House to prevent the administration from mass firing more workers. Democrats also want Congress to extend subsidies for health plans under the Affordable Care Act.
“We’ve got to get a deal with Donald Trump,” Kaine said.
But shutdowns grow more painful the longer they go. Soon, with closures lasting a fourth full week as of Tuesday, millions of Americans are likely to experience the difficulties firsthand.
“This week, more than any other week, the consequences become impossible to ignore,” said Rep. Lisa McClain, chair of the House Republican Conference.
Shutdown’s impact is set to grow dramatically
The nation’s 1.3 million active-duty service members are at risk of missing a paycheck on Friday. Earlier this month, the Trump administration ensured they were paid by shifting $8 billion from military research and development funds to make payroll. But it is unclear if the Trump administration is willing — or able — to shift money again.
Larger still, the Trump administration says funding will run out Friday for the food assistance program that is relied upon by 42 million Americans to supplement their grocery bills. The administration has rejected the use of more than $5 billion in contingency funds to keep benefits flowing into November. And it says states won’t be reimbursed if they temporarily cover the cost of benefits next month.
The Department of Agriculture says the contingency fund is intended to help respond to emergencies such as natural disasters. Democrats say the decision concerning the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP, goes against the department’s previous guidance concerning its operations during a shutdown.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York said the administration made an intentional choice not to the fund SNAP in November, calling it an “act of cruelty.”
Will lawmakers find a solution?
At the Capitol, congressional leaders mostly highlighted the challenges many Americans are facing as a result of the shutdown. But there was no movement toward negotiations as they attempted to lay blame on the other side of the political aisle.
“Now government workers and every other American affected by this shutdown have become nothing more than pawns in the Democrats’ political games,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D.
The House passed a short-term continuing resolution on Sept. 19 to keep federal agencies funded. Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has kept the House out of legislative session ever since, saying the solution is for Democrats to simply accept that bill.
But the Senate has consistently fallen short of the 60 votes needed to advance that spending measure. Democrats insist that any bill to fund the government also address health care costs, namely the soaring health insurance premiums that millions of Americans will face next year under plans offered through the Affordable Care Act marketplace.
Window-shopping for health plans delayed
The window for enrolling in ACA health plans begins Saturday. In past years, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has allowed Americans to preview their health coverage options about a week before open enrollment.
As of Monday, Healthcare.gov appeared to show 2025 health insurance plans and estimated prices, instead of next year’s options. CMS was expected to temporarily bring back all its workers furloughed during the shutdown, in part to manage the ACA open enrollment period.
Twenty-eight senators, mostly Democrats, signed a letter urging Trump’s administration to let ACA enrollees start previewing next year’s health insurance options on its marketplace website.
Republicans insist they will not entertain negotiations on health care until the government reopens.
“I’m particularly worried about premiums going up for working families,” said Sen. David McCormick, R-Pa. “So we’re going to have that conversation, but we’re not going to have it until the government opens.”
Congressional leaders dig in deeper
Schumer said Republicans would prefer to shut the government down than work with Democrats in preventing massive spikes in their health insurance costs. He said the average American doesn’t want to pay an extra $20,000 a year to cover their health insurance.
“And we Democrats want to solve this crisis right away,” Schumer said. “So lowering health care is not a crazy demand.”
Vice President JD Vance planned to attend a Republican luncheon on Capitol Hill Tuesday. But with President Donald Trump traveling in Asia and congressional leaders dug into their positions, a quick deal appeared unlikely.
Meanwhile, some rank-and-file lawmakers urged colleagues to consider the impact of their standoff on the lives of federal employees and Capitol police officers who have not been paid for weeks.
“We have got to come together, which means we’ve got to talk to one another,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski, an Alaska Republican, said in a floor speech urging leaders to stop focusing on who was winning the political fight. “Right now, those that are losing are the American people.”
Alaska Army National Guard Staff Sgt. Steven Gildersleeve, right, an HH-60M Black Hawk critical care flight paramedic, assigned to the 207th Aviation Troop Command, surveys Nightmute, Alaska, with local resident Harvey Dock during Operation Halong Response, Oct. 17, 2025. (Alaska National Guard photo by Staff Sgt. Joseph Moon)
President Donald Trump granted the State of Alaska’s request for a federal disaster declaration on Wednesday, unlocking federal disaster aid to support the ongoing relief and recovery effort in the aftermath of ex-Typhoon Halong throughout Western Alaska.
Gov. Mike Dunleavy formally submitted the request on Oct. 16, and applauded the announcement on social media on Wednesday.
Gov. Mike Dunleavy arrives in Bethel after visiting the storm-damaged villages of Kipnuk and Kwigillingok on Oct. 17, 2025. (Photo by Eric Stone/Alaska Public Media)
“This declaration will be instrumental for ongoing response and recovery efforts. I want to thank President Trump and his administration for the continued support of Alaska and providing help for Alaska during this time of need,” Dunleavy said on Facebook. “Thank you President Trump!”
The declaration authorizes a 100 percent cost share for relief assistance for the next 90 days, through January, according to a statement from the governor’s office. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will coordinate with the Alaska Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management on all recovery operations and programs. Representatives with the governor’s office and Alaska Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management said they did not yet have a copy of the declaration on Wednesday.
Trump said he also authorized an immediate $25 million in relief funding, to cover costs as the state continues to conduct damage assessments.
“I am approving $25 Million Dollars to help Alaska recover from the major typhoon they experienced earlier this month,” Trump wrote on the social media site Truth Social. “It is my Honor to deliver for the Great State of Alaska, which I won BIG in 2016, 2020, and 2024 — ALASKA, I WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN!”
The Alaska congressional delegation also thanked the president in a joint statement, noting their letter urging the president to respond and grant the disaster declaration.
“I raised Alaska’s disaster declaration directly with President Trump yesterday at the White House and thank him for quickly approving it to ensure impacted western communities have federal support in the wake of Typhoon Halong,” wrote US Sen. Lisa Senator Murkowski, R-Alaska. “I also appreciate FEMA’s expedited review of this request, which is one of the quickest federal responses in recent years.”
“To all Alaskans impacted,” Murkowski added. “Please know that your congressional delegation, state, and nation stand united and will continue to coordinate recovery efforts as you move forward.”
Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, praised Trump’s move and said he would be visiting storm-impacted villages on Saturday.
“I plan on being in Western Alaska this weekend with top FEMA and DHS officials, and my team and I will continue working closely with the Trump administration and our state, local, and tribal partners to make sure these incredible Alaskans get the help they need to recover and return to their communities,” Sullivan said.
Begich has not announced plans to visit the region. He also praised Trump and the announcement. “Our focus as a delegation remains on ensuring every Alaskan family impacted by this storm receives the resources and support needed throughout the long process of rebuilding their lives,” he said.
Alaska Organized Militia members assigned to Task Force Bethel continue recovery efforts, including retrieving boats the storm washed away and clearing debris at Chefornak, Alaska, Oct. 21, 2025. (Photo by the Alaska National Guard)
The disaster declaration request covered the Northwest Arctic Borough, Lower Yukon Regional Education Attendance Area and the Lower Kukokwim Regional Attendance Area, places hit by the remnants of Typhoon Halong.
More than 1,500 residents were displaced by the storm that killed one woman and left two missing in Kwigillingok.
The storm recovery effort is in full swing. Local residents are working on clean up, while regional tribal partners and dozens of state agencies, non-profit and relief organizations provide support to the region, particularly the hardest hit area of the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. State and tribal agencies are flying aid into those residents who remain in the coastal villages, like immediate food, water and fuel, while crews continue to work on debris removal, fuel spills, infrastructure assessment and repair to water, power, and sewer systems, roads and boardwalks. Crews are working throughout communities to repair homes where possible, so that local residents can return before winter sets in.
There is no cost estimate for the storm damage at this time, according to Jeremy Zidek, a spokesperson for the state Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, because agencies are working to restore services simultaneously.
The program provides financial assistance for storm damage to homes, vehicles, essential personal property, medical, dental or funeral needs directly related to the disaster. Applicants will be eligible for $21,250 in home repairs and another $21,250 for “other needs.”
The president has not yet authorized federal individual assistance — $42,500 for home repairs and $42,500 for other items — but state officials say there will likely be more information from the Trump administration in the coming days.
NOTN- City officials are working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to plan the next phase of flood-control work along the Mendenhall River.
Mayor Beth Weldon said Corps officials spent an entire day in Juneau last week discussing next steps and funding options for the multi-phase project.
“They came into town, and what we thought would be an hour turned into two hours and then turned into all day. ” Said Weldon, “That is good, because that means they’re very interested in us.”
Phase 1 repairs are underway to reinforce existing HESCO barriers and fix areas where water breached.
“Everybody knows that there are places we have to fix, especially where the trees struck through, and some areas had water coming through the pipes underneath the HESCO barriers.” Said Weldon “But their (U.S. Army Corp of Engineers) concern was, there were some places where the water actually lapped over, so part of this is we’re going to have to raise the HESCO barriers in some places.”
Phase 2, which would extend additional protection along the river, may not be completed in a single season because of cost constraints.
The city is seeking more federal support to meet its July construction deadline, but Weldon said the ongoing federal government shutdown has delayed progress.
“We were supposed to meet with the NRCS people, but they’ve been furloughed. So that is not good news for the people on View Drive, that’s the agency that was looking at the buyout program.” Said Weldon, “People don’t just come back to work and start running where they left off. View Drive will be a real challenge this next year.”
The Natural Resources Conservation Service the agency overseeing a federal buyout program for homeowners on View Drive, has been furloughed.
The current federal government shutdown has no end in sight.
Weldon added that new voter-approved tax limits may also restrict local funding options for flood control. “It’s going to tie our hands a bit,” she said. “It’s protecting the valley; if we protect the valley, it actually helps the whole city.”
AP- The remnant storms of Typhoon Halong tore into western Alaska with such ferocity that they pulled Steven Anaver’s home from its foundation and buoyed it across choppy water — with him inside.
Videos he shared Monday with The Associated Press convey the desperate scene as the waters rose inside his home and the flooding raged outside.
The storms’ blistering winds and record-high water levels laid waste to several small communities Oct. 12, displacing more than 2,000 people and requiring one of the most significant airlift operations in Alaska history.
At least one person is dead, and two others are missing.
The water started rising quickly Saturday night in Anaver’s village of Kwigillingok. It’s one of two Yup’ik communities that were hit hardest.
Anaver looked out through his window into pitch-black darkness. The power had long since been out.
The storm was the worst he’d seen. At around 3:00 a.m. on Sunday, the water level jumped, rising to his knees in about 10 minutes.
Shortly after, the home teetered, tilted and started floating.
Plastic bags, boxes of blankets, a leather boot and furniture cushions floated in videos Anaver took from inside. The walls swayed like a ship’s.
Outside, the dark waters lapped the house just a few feet from the window as the home drifted away. Anaver heard loud booms, and frigid wind rushed through a hole that opened in one wall.
“This was a big challenge for my anxiety,” he said. “I kept calling my family.”
More booms shook the home as the waves crashed it into other structures.
“Oh God,” he wrote in a Facebook post around 5:30 a.m.
Anaver tried to take pictures to orient where he was — the camera could see better than his eyes in the darkness — but it was futile until the moon came out later that morning.
He could see a house he recognized. He’d floated for roughly a mile.
A small hill with a board sticking out of it had stopped Anaver’s home just feet from the river, which had dragged other houses much farther away.
After 7 a.m., when the water had receded enough, two neighbors in waders came over and helped him out.
Three days later, Anaver posted a video on Facebook of the hours drifting in his own home.
“I was inches away from death,” he wrote. “I escaped.”
