The Alaska and American flags fly in front of the Alaska State Capitol on Tuesday, April 22, 2025. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon)
If the federal government shutdown continues, more than 66,000 Alaskans will lose federal food aid within weeks, the state of Alaska is warning.
On Monday, the Division of Public Assistance within the Alaska Department of Health said that the federal government “has directed states to stop the issuance of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits for the month of November due to insufficient federal funds. This means that Alaskans may not receive SNAP benefits for November, even if they are authorized to receive them.”
The division estimates that 66,471 Alaskans would be eligible for benefits under the program.
In its written statement, the division said that it tried to pay for the program with state money “and determined that a state subsidy was not mechanically possible under the federal payment system.”
Similar warning messages went out from other states across the country starting Friday. In Kentucky, where one in eight residents receives food aid, Gov. Andy Beshear said the pending cut makes this “a scary and stressful time.”
Altogether across the country, more than 42 million Americans rely on the food stamp program, which the federal government funds and individual states administer.
Sixty votes in the U.S. Senate are needed to advance a House-passed stopgap funding bill. That would require the support of some Senate Democrats, but they oppose its passage unless lawmakers also agree to extend subsidies for health insurance purchased through the federal marketplace.
Existing subsidies are scheduled to expire at the end of the year, sending prices soaring.
Thus far, Republicans have been unwilling to agree to the Democratic demand, and Senate Republicans also have been unwilling to change the Senate’s filibuster rule. Doing so would allow them to advance the stopgap funding bill with 50 votes instead of 60.
The Alaska and American flags fly in front of the Alaska State Capitol on Tuesday, April 22, 2025. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon)
NOTN- Juneau Sen. Jesse Kiehl says the ongoing federal government shutdown is harming public workers and citizens rather than politicians.
Speaking on KINY last week, Kiehl said that despite one party holding control of Congress and the White House, U.S. Senate filibuster rules make it difficult to reach a budget deal.
“Federal rules are a little bit different than the state; there’s the old saying in the U.S. Senate that there are only two rules, there’s unanimous consent and total exhaustion.” Kiehl said, “Breaking a filibuster means bringing in cots and sleeping there until somebody finally falls over. The U.S. Senate is not a bunch of spring chickens, so they don’t like to do that second part. So they’re trying to get to a deal, or rather, if they don’t get to a deal, we end up here.”
Kiehl, recalling Alaska’s own brief partial shutdown during his time in the Legislature, said the consequences of budget impasses fall hardest on workers and the public.
“The pain doesn’t end up with the folks who do the voting, we really have to keep an eye on who’s affected, and it’s the citizens.” Kiehl said, “It’s the people who try to go to work and do the job for the public every day, and that’s what we’re seeing. It’s a doggone shame.”
As of October 21, 2025, the government has been shut down for 21 days, with over 700,000 federal employees furloughed, on October 22, 2025 the shutdown will become the second longest, the longest funding lapse was 35 days in 2018 and 2019.
Republicans and Democrats seem no closer to an agreement on how to resolve the ongoing budget dispute.
Under the U.S. system, the different branches of government have to agree on spending plans before they become law.
“Everybody needs to focus back up and remember that services to Americans are what’s getting cut here.” Kiehl said, “This is destructive.”
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.”
Members of the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian group Aanchich’x Kwaan perform on Oct. 18, 2025, at the Alaska Federation of Natives convention in Anchorage. The dance and singing group has members of all age groups, from young children to elders. The group was among several that performed traditional dances at the convention. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)
The Alaska Federation of Natives convention in Anchorage, while it featured the usual cultural celebrations, socializing and discussions of state and federal policies, had a strong focus this year on a particular subject: the ravages on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta of ex-Typhoon Halong.
Natasha Singh poses for photos in the hallway of the Dena’ina Civic and Convention Center, site of the Alaska Federation of Natives annual convention. Singh, who is president of the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, had just delivered her keynote speech on the opening morning of the convention. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)
Speaker after speaker at the convention, the largest annual convention of any kind in Alaska and one of the largest Indigenous gatherings in the nation, referenced the storm. It has displaced more than 1,500 people, killed at least one person and dislodged houses from their foundations. Residents of stricken villages have been airlifted away, with hundreds getting temporary residency in Anchorage. The state’s largest city is about 490 miles east of the evacuees’ home villages, and vastly different in culture and character from the highly rural Indigenous communities.
“My heart with everyone impacted by the recent coastal storms,” Natasha Singh, the president of the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium and the keynote speaker on the first day of the convention, said at the start of her address.
“While the damage is so vast, the love for our people is even greater. And even as we feel the pain and the loss, I also feel a sense of inspiration to see so many people reach out to help,” she continued.
Volunteers work on Oct. 18, 2025, to sort donated items being collected in a room in the Dena’ina Civic and Coonvention Center, site of the Alaska Federation of Natives annual convention. Donations of diapers, clothing, hygiene products, bottled water, shelf-stable food and other items were being collected for Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta residents displaced by the remnants of Typhoon Halong. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)
A special feature of the convention was a second-floor room at the Dena’ina Civic and Convention Center that was set aside to collect donations headed to the storm victims. Over two days, as convention proceedings unfolded in the third-floor ballroom, the collection room became filled with boxes of diapers, toiletries, clothing items, shelf-stable food and other necessities that were sorted by volunteers.
On Saturday, the final day, delegates passed a resolution seeking an immediate national disaster declaration, and investment by the federal government in better infrastructure in rural Alaska to protect against future disasters.
The ravages of the remnants ofTyphoon Halong demand more than an emergency response, the resolution said. The disaster “has continued to expose vulnerabilities in infrastructure, housing, and emergency preparedness for rural Alaska/extreme remote America, and highlights the need for stronger tribal-state-federal collaboration,” it said.
Alaska Federation of Natives convention attendees from the Yukon-Kuskokwim region listen on Oct. 16, 2025, to the keynote address delivered by Natasha Singh, president of the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)
The call for a national disaster declaration and the aid that would come with it was among a packet of resolutions passed on Saturday. Many of the resolutions concerned food security and efforts to ensure that Alaska Natives can safely practice their traditional fishing and hunting practices.
One highly anticipated convention speaker was former U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola, D-Alaska, who is considered a possible candidate for governor or U.S. Senate.
But Peltola made no campaign announcement.
“I want to preface everything I’m saying with: This is going to be very anticlimactic for everybody, I think,” she said at the start of her speech. “No big announcements, no big declarations.”
Former U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola, D-Alaska, speaks at the Alaska Federation of Natives convention on Oct. 17, 2025, about subsistence food gathering. Peltola is Yup’ik and from Bethel. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)
Instead, she discussed subsistence – the traditional harvests of wild foods and arts materials – and the legal and environmental threats to its continued practice.
State legislators sit onstage at the Alaska Federation of Natives convention on Oct. 17, 2025, as House Speaker Bryce Edgmon, I-Dillingham, addresses the audience. Lawmakers pictured are, from the left, Rep. Neal Foster, D-Nome; Rep. Maxine Dibert, D-Fairbanks; Rep. Andrew Gray, D-Anchorage; Rep. Zack Fields, D-Anchorage; Rep. Robyn Burke, D-Utqiagvik; Rep. Louise Stutes, R-Kodiak; Sen. Donny Olson, D-Golovin; and Rep. Nellie Jimmie, D-Toksook Bay. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)
She spoke about the way subsistence ties Alaska Natives to their home regions.
“Those spots, the places that we hunt and fish, they’re like another personality to us,” Peltola said.
She referred to a close friend who recently died. When she was on her deathbed, her family gathered around, Peltola said. “And at one point, they just talked about places. They just said the names of the places where they pick berries, or get whitefish, gather greens. And it was one of the most beautiful moments I’ve ever experienced, just reciting names.”
Kendra Berlin mans a pro-voting table at the Alaska Federation of Natives convention on Oct. 16, 2025. Berlin, originally from Bethel but now living in Palmer, was distributing T-shirt and buttons promoting the Natives Vote cause. (Phot by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)
In this photo provided by the Alaska Army National, Guard Sgt. Mary Miller, a helicopter crew chief, passes a bottle of water to a child while evacuating displaced people from Kwigillingok, Alaska, during recovery operations on Thursday, Oct. 16, 2025. (Joseph Moon/Alaska National Guard via AP)
AP-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 homes — or 90% 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. More than 2,000 people across the region have taken shelter — in schools in their villages, in larger communities in southwest Alaska or have been evacuated by military planes to Anchorage, the state’s largest city.
Anchorage leaders said Friday they expect as many as 1,600 evacuees to arrive. So far about 575 have been airlifted to the city by the Alaska National Guard, and have been staying at a sports arena or a convention center. Additional flights were expected Friday and Saturday.
Officials are working on figuring out how to move people out of shelters and into short-term accommodations, such as hotels, and then longer-term housing.
“Due to the time, space, distance, geography, and weather in the affected areas, it is likely that many survivors will be unable to return to their communities this winter,” Dunleavy said. “Agencies are prioritizing rapid repairs … but it is likely that some damaged communities will not be viable to support winter occupancy, in America’s harshest climate in the U.S. Arctic.”
The federal government already has been assisting with search and rescue, damage assessments, environmental response and evacuation support. A major disaster declaration by President Donald Trump could provide federal assistance programs for individuals and public infrastructure, including money for emergency and permanent work.
The three members of Alaska’s congressional delegation on Friday sent a letter to Trump, urging swift approval.
The storm surge pummeled a sparsely populated region off the state’s main road system where communities are reachable only by air or water this time of year. The villages typically have just a few hundred residents, who hunt and fish for much of their food, and relocating to the state’s major cities will bring a vastly different lifestyle.
Alexie Stone, of Kipnuk, arrived in Anchorage in a military jet with his brothers, children and mom, after his home was struck by the flooding. They’ve been staying at the Alaska Airlines Center at the University of Alaska, where the Red Cross provided evacuees with cots, blankets and hygiene supplies.
At least for the foreseeable future, he thinks he might try to find a job at a grocery store; he used to work in one in Bethel.
“It’s going to be, try to look for a place and find a job,” Stone said Friday. “We’re starting a new life here in Anchorage.”
Anchorage officials and business leaders said Friday they were eager to help the evacuees.
“Our neighbors in western Alaska have experienced tremendous loss, devastation and grief,” Mayor Suzanne LaFrance said at a meeting of the Anchorage Assembly. “We will do everything we can here in Anchorage to welcome our neighbors and help them through these difficult times.”
State Rep. Nellie Unangiq Jimmie, of Toksook Bay, on an island northwest of Kipnuk, described for the assembly how she rode out the storm’s 100 mph (161 kmh) winds with her daughter and niece.
“We had no choice but to sit in our home and wait to see if our house is going to come off the foundation or if debris is going to bust open our windows,” she said.
It didn’t, but others weren’t as fortunate. She thanked Anchorage for welcoming the evacuees.
“You are showing my people, my relatives, my constituents, even if they are far from home, this is still Alaska land and they’re amongst families,” Jimmie said.
Hundreds gather at Overstreet park in Juneau (James Brooks, Alaska Beacon)
Alaskans came out to protest the Trump administration as part of the nationwide No Kings protest on Saturday, with speeches, songs, and increasingly creative flair — signs, slogans, and costumes, some as inflatable animals like eagles and polar bears.
In downtown Anchorage, protesters filled Town Square Park, and the crowd spilled over to line W 5th and W 6th avenues, where they waved signs and passing cars honked in support.
“It’s a matter of we are losing our rights,” said Keri Lord of Anchorage, dressed in a long cape and crown for the no kings theme. “And we are headed towards fascism, and it needs to stop now.”
Thousands gather at Town Square Park in downtown Anchorage for the second No Kings day protest to denounce the Trump administration and its policies on Oct. 18, 2025 (Photo by Corinne Smith/Alaska Beacon)
There were speeches, chants, poetry and songs. The crowd also showed support for the evacuees of the devastating storm in western Alaska, and urged donations and continued aid for relief and recovery efforts. Non-profits and advocacy groups hosted tables along the Atwood Concert Hall with educational materials and hot coffee.
“It’s great to see so many people come out,” said Karan Gier, matching Lord in a cape and crown, holding a sign reading “No troops in our streets.“ And from all ages. That’s what’s especially wonderful. We’ve seen that all summer, because we’ve been to all of (the protests) all summer long. And it makes your heart feel good to see this. We’re not a silent majority. We are loud.”
At least 25 communities held events throughout the state for No Kings day, including Kotzebue, Nome, Fairbanks, Talkeetna, Healy, Wasilla, Anchorage, Girdwood, Soldotna, Kenai, Homer, Seward, Dillingham, Kodiak, Valdez, Haines, Gustavus, Juneau, Sitka, Ketchikan and others.
Around 45 protesters rallied in Healy, pop. 723, in the Denali Borough of Interior Alaska for the second No Kings day protest on Oct. 18, 2025 (Photo by Michelle Femrite)
Alaskan’s protest signs shared on social media and in Anchorage used humor and satire to mock and condemn President Donald Trump, his cabinet, and recent moves to expand executive powers as authoritarian. Speakers denounced cuts to federal funding and social services such as Medicaid, disregard for the rule of law, and the ongoing government shutdown.
Many protest signs denounced the deployment of U.S. military troops in Democratic-led cities across the country, and the actions of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement violently arresting immigrants and U.S. citizens.
“I love this country, and I think we should be better,” said Kathryn Schild, a life-long Anchorage resident. “I’m appalled at what we are doing to our friends and our neighbors and our loved ones.”
“And this is what we can do, right?” she said. “We have a voice, we can call, we can protest, we can stand up, and we can demand that our government work for us.”
Volumes of the Alaska Administrative Code are seen on Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2025, at the Legislative Reference Library in the Alaska State Capitol at Juneau. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon)
In the next few years, Alaskans could see sweeping changes to everyday life under an ambitious and far-reaching program launched by Gov. Mike Dunleavy.
Administrative Order 360, issued in August, calls on state agencies to reduce the number of state regulations by 15% before 2027 and 25% cumulatively before 2028.
Both deadlines would come after Dunleavy, who is term-limited, leaves office in December 2026.
If laws are the bones of a state, regulations are the ligaments and connective tissue that keep it moving. Alaska’s administrative code, a shelflong 10-volume set of thick books, dictates everything from how to conduct an election to the proper labeling of eggs and the correct way to install an underground fuel tank.
Forty-five different professions are regulated by the state: Pharmacists follow the rules in that code, as do nail technicians, concert promoters, barbers, midwives, and people who euthanize animals.
Elections officials operate under a system of regulations, as do local electric companies, water providers, and the people providing Internet service. Utilities, which have local monopolies on critical services, are tightly regulated, with even their profit margins controlled by the state.
Regulations are intended to protect the public and ensure safety, but some businesses see them as a problem, particularly if the cost of following them is high, or if they go beyond what the business owner thinks is warranted.
“There are often numerous, unnecessary requirements that simply impose an unnecessary burden on businesses, the public, and the agencies themselves,” says a regulatory reduction guide distributed by the Dunleavy administration to state agencies as part of the administrative project.
Development permitting regulations are a top priority
The governor’s order specifies that the departments of Natural Resources, Environmental Conservation and Fish and Game focus “on permitting process reform,” eliminating regulations that lay out steps to take before a development project like a new mine, road or neighborhood can be built.
Attorney General-designee Stephen Cox began leading the Alaska Department of Law not long after Dunleavy issued AO 360, and his agency is taking a lead role in its implementation.
“One of the things that the governor is trying to do is make Alaska all the more attractive for investment,” he said.
Sometimes, Cox said, regulations go farther than what was intended by law. Rather than serving as connective tissue, they can act “almost like a spider web” as additional forms and requirements are added over time, with none taken away.
“You might start out with a single strand, but then there becomes this whole web that you can walk right into. You can feel it everywhere. … it’s just sort of expanding and expanding, and it hardly ever shrinks, until the rain comes, and that’s what AO 360 will be akin to,” he said.
Department of Law officials believe the state has a large number of outdated regulations that could be easily removed.
In other cases, regulations have adopted parts of federal law by reference, but agencies haven’t checked to see whether those federal laws have been repealed or changed in the meantime.
A cursory review shows some areas of the code haven’t kept up with technological development. “Telegraph” appears five times in the code, “fax” 16 times, “telex” four times.
For many departments, the guide suggests that reducing training requirements or eliminating parts of mandatory forms could earn credit toward the governor’s goal, even if the main regulation stays in place.
“Consider, for instance, a requirement that an applicant for a professional license complete 1,000 hours of training before he or she can be certified. Some training is necessary, so the requirement should not be eliminated completely, but 1,000 hours may be excessive. Requiring 500 hours of training, for instance, may be sufficient,” the guide states.
Fairbanks writer Dermot Cole, a frequent critic of the Dunleavy administration, noted online that doctors are required by regulation to take 25 credit-hours of continuing-education classes each year. Under the guide, the state is encouraging Alaska’s state medical board to reduce that requirement, he argues.
The guide states that when eliminating requirements, “agencies should be mindful of the important role of regulations in promoting public health, safety, and welfare, and developing our natural resources, and should not eliminate any requirements that are critical to protecting the public and the environment.”
Deadlines approach for early action
Already, state agencies have flooded Alaska’s public notice system with requests for Alaskans submit suggestions for regulations to eliminate. The first deadlines to do so are this week.
According to a draft schedule, agencies have until Jan. 5 to draft “a proposed plan setting forth regulations identified for reform based upon stakeholder meetings.”
Final plans should be posted for review no later than Feb. 1.
Further squeezing agencies is a requirement that they submit guidance documents — materials that tell Alaskans how to follow regulations — to the Department of Law for review. By Feb. 1, the department will make a determination whether those documents should themselves become regulations.
If they do, that would mean the agencies would have to make further cuts in order to fit their guidance documents within the number of regulations they’re allowed.
The state’s baseline number of regulations — a figure that will dictate how many regulations must be cut under the governor’s plan — was supposed to be published by Oct. 13, according to the draft schedule. It has not yet been finalized.
Seven agencies have completed or substantially completed their baseline count information, according to a spokesperson for the Department of Law. The remaining agencies have asked for an extension.
The Alaska Public Interest Research Group, a consumer watchdog, has been following the governor’s project with some alarm. It’s particularly concerned with upcoming changes to utility regulations.
“We support thoughtful, periodic review of regulations to make sure they’re effective and up to date. But this process isn’t that. By setting an arbitrary target for cuts and moving at breakneck speed, the state is creating a chaotic process that favors well-organized industry interests, leaves the public at a disadvantage, and places unnecessary strain on state agencies already stretched thin,” said AKPIRG regulatory analyst Brian Kassof.
“Regulations exist to protect the public interest and provide stability and certainty for communities and businesses. This rush to eliminate 15% of regulations across our state agencies does not leave adequate time for meaningful public engagement and risks creating unintended consequences that will be much harder to fix later.”
Alaska’s program follows others in Idaho and Virginia
Dunleavy’s program is modeled after a similar one that began in Virginia in 2022, Cox said. That one was itself modeled after a different but similar effort in Idaho that started in 2019.
Both of those programs had the support of prominent national conservative groups, including the Federalist Society and the American Legislative Exchange Council, which has offered example programs to states for them to use.
Think-tanks like the Heritage Foundation have called Virginia’s program a “role model for other states,” and the Hoover Institution praised both Virginia’s system and a newly launched one in Texas.
In July, after three years of work, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin held a ceremony to celebrate the fact that his state had beaten its 25% regulation-reduction goal.
That event showed the similarities and differences between that state’s program and the one in the works for Alaska, which has fewer state agencies and regulations.
Youngkin, for example, praised the elimination of tens of thousands of regulations related to home construction, something he claimed had reduced the cost of new homes in the state.
Here in Alaska, the state doesn’t regulate home construction. In Alaska’s administrative code, the word “house” appears only 316 times, and is more likely to apply to housing assistance or an ice fishing house than a residential structure.
Virginia’s program significantly reduced the rules governing how stormwater runoff is regulated. Andrew Wheeler, former EPA director for President Donald Trump, launched Virgnia’s program for Youngkin and said that before he started work, Virginia’s stormwater regulations formed a stack 23 inches high. Afterward, the stack was five inches high.
In Alaska’s administrative code, the word “stormwater” appears just seven times.
The federal government has taken steps toward regulatory reform under multiple Republican and Democratic administrations, but during the first Trump administration, the president tried regulatory budgeting and ordered that two federal regulations be repealed for every new one. That was new.
“They adopted something called regulatory budgeting, and so they would look for ways to reduce the number,” Cox said.
Something similar will be in place in Alaska. If an agency wants to enact a new regulation, it needs to find another to remove, while also pursuing additional removals to meet the 25% goal.
Cox said AO 360 was issued with the federal context and other states’ context in mind.
“It’s with that goal of really unleashing the Alaska economy and inviting new investment into Alaska, that is motivating the governor in terms of why this is appropriate,” he said.
In this photo provided by the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service, Alaska Air National Guard rescue personnel conduct a search and rescue mission in Kipnuk, Alaska, on Monday, Oct. 13, 2025. (Defense Visual Information Distribution Service via AP)
AP- One of the most significant airlifts in Alaska history was underway Wednesday to move hundreds of people from coastal villages ravaged by high surf and strong winds from the remnants of Typhoon Halong last weekend, officials said.
The storm brought record water levels to two low-lying communities and washed away homes — some with people inside. At least one person was killed and two are missing. Makeshift shelters were quickly established and swelled to about 1,500 people, an extraordinary number in a sparsely populated region where communities are reachable by air or water.
The remoteness and the scale of the destruction created challenges for getting resources in place. Damage assessments have been trickling in as responders have shifted from initial search-and-rescue operations to trying to stabilize or restore basic services.
The communities of Kipnuk and Kwigillingok near the Bering Sea saw water levels more than 6 feet (1.8 meters) above the highest normal tide line. Leaders asked the state to evacuate the more than 1,000 residents in those villages, said Jeremy Zidek, a spokesperson with the state emergency management office.
Some homes cannot be reoccupied, even with emergency repairs, and others may not be livable by winter, said emergency management officials. Forecasters say rain and snow is possible in the region this weekend, with average temperatures soon below freezing.
Mark Roberts, the incident commander with the state emergency management agency, said the immediate focus was on “making sure people are safe, warm and cared for while we work with our partners to restore essential services.”
Meantime, restrooms were again working at the school in Kwigillingok, where about 350 people had sheltered overnight Tuesday, according to a state emergency management statement. “Damage to many homes is severe, and the community leadership is instructing residents not to reenter homes due to safety concerns,” it said.
About 300 evacuees were being brought to Anchorage on Wednesday, about 500 miles (805 kilometers) east of the battered coastline villages, according to the state Department of Military and Veterans Affairs. They were going to the Alaska Airlines Center, a sports and events complex with capacity for about 400, Zidek said.
Shelter space closer to home — in the southwest Alaska regional hub of Bethel — had been reaching capacity, officials said.
Zidek did not know how long the evacuation process would take and said authorities were looking for additional sheltering locations. The aim is to get people from congregate shelters into hotel rooms or dormitories, he said.
The crisis 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 disaster risks.
For example, a $20 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 to protect the boardwalk residents use to get around the community as well as 1,400 feet (430 meters) of river from erosion, according to a federal website that tracks government spending.
There was limited work on the project before the grant was ended. The village had purchased a bulldozer for shipment and briefly hired a bookkeeper, according to Public Rights Project, which represents Kipnuk.
The group said no single project was likely to prevent the recent flood. But work to remove abandoned fuel tanks and other material to prevent it from falling into the river might have been feasible during the 2025 construction season.
“What’s happening in Kipnuk shows the real cost of pulling back support that was already promised to front line communities,” said Jill Habig, CEO of Public Rights Project. “These grants were designed to help local governments prepare for and adapt to the growing effects of climate change. When that commitment is broken, it puts people’s safety, homes and futures at risk.”
NOTN- Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski is joining a bipartisan group of lawmakers urging the Office of Management and Budget to guarantee back pay for federal workers affected by the ongoing government shutdown.
In a letter sent to OMB Director Russell Vought, the lawmakers said the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019 clearly requires all federal employees, whether furloughed or working without pay, to receive full back pay once the shutdown ends.
The group says OMB recently removed affirmation of that guarantee.
The full letter can be viewed below;
Dear Director Vought:
The Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) recent update to the Frequently Asked Questions During a Lapse in Appropriations document implies that furloughed federal workers are not entitled to back pay. Additionally, a draft OMB memo stated the administration would deny back pay to furloughed federal workers for the current government shutdown. During the 2018-2019 shutdown, we worked with President Trump to enact the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act (GEFTA) of 2019, the intent of which is clear – federal employees are entitled to retroactive pay in the event of a government shutdown. We applauded President Trump for signing this bipartisan bill into law.
On January 16, 2019, the Senate unanimously passed the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act to guarantee back pay for all impacted federal workers once a government shutdown ends. This law was enacted during the longest government shutdown which lasted 35 days at the end of 2018, and into the beginning of 2019. Prior to the law’s passage, Congress had to pass specific legislation after each shutdown to ensure furloughed workers received back pay.
Explicitly, the law guarantees back pay for all federal employees in the event of a government shutdown. “Each employee of the United States Government or of a District of Columbia public employer furloughed as a result of a covered lapse in appropriations shall be paid for the period of the lapse in appropriations, and each excepted employee who is required to perform work during a covered lapse in appropriations shall be paid for such work, at the employee’s standard rate of pay, at the earliest date possible after the lapse in appropriations ends, regardless of scheduled pay dates, and subject to the enactment of appropriations Acts ending the lapse.” The law requires that retroactive pay be required in the event of any government shutdown after December 22, 2018.
The law is clear: all impacted government employees, regardless of excepted or furloughed status, are entitled to back pay after a government shutdown ends, which is consistent with the guidance currently provided by federal agencies, including the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). OPM’s shutdown guidance from September 2025 still states that furloughed federal workers will be provided back pay once the government reopens. The decision by OMB to remove critical guidance on federal employee back pay is causing unnecessary stress for the federal workforce comprised of nearly 2.2 million employees.
Thus, we request you immediately clarify and update the Frequently Asked Questions During a Lapse in Appropriations Document and other relevant materials to affirm that furloughed employees will receive back pay, as is required by law.
Alaska Republican U.S. Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan (Alaska Beacon file photos)
Alaska’s two U.S. senators are split on whether or not it is appropriate for the U.S. military to kill suspected drug smugglers without trial or a declaration of war.
On Tuesday, the federal government said it had killed another six people aboard a boat in international waters of the Caribbean Sea, with President Trump claiming on social media that they were drug smugglers.
Since Sept. 2, the U.S. military has killed 27 people in the Caribbean Sea without a declaration of war or criminal trial, according to statistics kept by the New York Times.
In each case, the federal government has asserted without evidence that all the people killed aboard the boats were smuggling drugs.
Last week, Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, voted to have the Senate vote on a resolution that would have ended the Caribbean Sea bombings unless approved by Congress.
Sixty votes were needed to call a vote. Only 48 senators — all Democrats, plus Murkowski and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky — voted in favor of bringing the issue to a vote.
“While I commend the administration’s concerted efforts to address the devastation of drug trafficking on communities across the country, I do not believe the information I have received justifies this interpretation of the President’s Article II powers,” Murkowski said, referring to the section of the Constitution that names the president the commander in chief of the military.
“I take very seriously my Article I responsibility when it comes to Congress’s power to declare war. I don’t think that full information on the legal and factual justification for armed attacks on suspected drug traffickers is too much to ask,” Murkowski said.
Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, joined the rest of the Senate’s Republicans and Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania in voting to support the bombings.
Afterward, he offered a written statement explaining his vote.
“Days ago, I was briefed by Secretary of State Rubio on Venezuelan narcoterrorist cartels flooding our country with deadly drugs. Nicolás Maduro — the illegitimate leader of Venezuela and a criminal indicted by U.S. prosecutors — refuses to cooperate with the U.S. and is clearly aiding these vicious drug traffickers who are responsible for killing tens of thousands of Americans. President Trump’s lawful strikes against these cartels are saving lives and, importantly, establishing deterrence. Under Article II, he has the authority to defend our homeland, just as President George H.W. Bush did when he ordered the invasion of Panama in 1989 to remove the drug-trafficking dictator Manuel Noriega,” the statement said.
“Senate Democrats’ resolution was another attempt to restrict the President’s ability to act — emboldening cartels and putting American lives at risk. These senators would never tolerate ISIS or al-Qaeda operating freely near our shores: eliminating a terrorist organization like Tren de Aragua that is literally killing thousands of Americans is no different. More Americans have died from drug overdoses in the past seven years than in both World Wars and the Vietnam War combined. Alaskans know this devastation firsthand, as poisons like fentanyl tear apart families in our cities and Alaska Native villages. Eliminating these cartels before they reach our shores protects our county and sends a strong message of deterrence.”
