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Support for Alaska Public Media on Demand comes from Siri, an Alaska Native corporation with operations and investments spanning five continents, 45 states and two US territories.
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Winter is coming pretty fast. How do we shelter them and be respectful of them in their communities?
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Communities and organizations around the state are working to shelter and support evacuees from last weekend's massive storm. From Alaska Public Media, this is statewide news on Alaska News nightly for Friday, October 17th. Good evening. I'm Casey Grove. Also tonight, the Aleutian community of Adac has been without power for weeks and a fix is slow to arrive.
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They are not able to do anything else but wait, you know, for their generator that's on that bowhead barge.
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Those stories and more tonight on Alaska News Nightly. Governor Mike Dunleavy visited two western Alaska villages today to speak with residents and assess the damage left by high winds and flooding from the remnants of Typhoon Ha Long. Officials with the state Department of Transportation and Public facilities estimate that 90% of the structures in the village of Kipnuk were destroyed in the storm, along with about a third of the buildings in nearby Quigilingoc. Dunleavy compared the storm surge and wind damage in Kipnuk to the blast left by a bomb.
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Kipnuk is probably what was described and what we thought it was going to look like. Unfortunately, Quig was in better shape. That doesn't mean they don't need help. They do need help. Some of the other villages that we have not been able to go to, we know will also need help, and that's why we're out here assessing.
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Dunleavy requested Thursday that President Donald Trump declare a federal disaster for the region. Meanwhile, residents of Kipnock and Quigalingock continued to land Thursday night in Anchorage at Joint Base Elmendorf Richardson, carrying backpacks and plastic bags filled with their belongings as they exited a military transport plane hundreds of miles from home, not knowing if or when they would return. They then boarded school buses bound for emergency shelters or in some cases, to stay with friends or family. The Thursday night flight was the third of its kind this week after efforts to move displaced residents from Bethel to Anchorage began Wednesday. The National Guard expected more to arrive today and tomorrow. Alaska National Guard Colonel Christie Brewer says the goal is to get everybody who wants to be evacuated to Anchorage. She says some decided to stay in Bethel or go to other communities.
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Those who are willing to stay behind or who wants to stay in their communities, we support that as well, and we're doing what we can to help shelter them and transport them to where.
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They need to be. Brewer says evacuation operations will continue for as long as needed to get people to safety. The National Guard is still dropping food, water and other supplies to other storm impacted villages that have not been evacuated, and they are continuing to deploy maintenance staff to repair damaged power generators. It's unclear where the evacuees in Anchorage will go in the long term. For now, some are staying in two mass shelters at the Alaska Airlines center on the University of Alaska Anchorage campus and the city's Eagan Civic and Convention center downtown. Both are managed by the American Red Cross, and hundreds of additional disaster workers from across the country are headed to Alaska to Erin McCann is a deputy coordinator with the Red Cross. She says that manpower extends beyond just the Anchorage shelters.
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Some will go to Bethel and then.
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We'Re hoping to do distribution of emergency supplies out in the affected villages and during that process folks will actually get out to all the affected villages when they're out.
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Dave Riley, deputy operations section chief with the Alaska Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, says the Anchorage shelters are equipped to hold up to 2000 individual first, Riley says the emergency response in Anchorage is to provide immediate shelter and medical aid, but it's also aimed at the longer road ahead for the evacuees.
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Winter is coming pretty fast. How do we shelter them and be respectful of them and their communities and their culture for the long term until we get to where we can rebuild their homes?
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Riley says the state is prepared to provide individual assistance to help secure hotel rooms, apartments and houses. In the wake of the storm that devastated western Alaska this week, there's been scrutiny of the Trump administration's cancellation of a grant that would have been aimed at preventing erosion in one of the hardest hit communities under former President Joe Biden. The Environmental Protection agency awarded the $20 million grant to the village of Kipnock in December. But after Trump took office, his EPA canceled the grant, along with millions more meant for climate change mitigation and renewable energy projects. As the Anchorage Daily News reports, the EPA defended that decision this week. And while there are questions about whether the grant would have done much to help Kipnuk from the storm that hit Sunday, ADN reporter Iris Samuels says it was supposed to be used to build a protective barrier.
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So the village used to be several hundred feet away from the banks of the river and over time it's gotten closer and closer and closer. So the goal of this GR was to create an erosion barrier so that homes and village infrastructure that were at risk from the river kind of eroding would Be protected. That was the goal of the grant.
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Gotcha. And so my understanding is it was canceled earlier this year. How was it canceled? And I guess also why was it canceled? Do we know?
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So the grant was awarded in December of 2024, and then Trump was elected, President Trump was elected. And in about March, this was frozen. And the EPA administrator basically said that they were reviewing all these grants that had to do with what they refer to as climate justice, and that potentially some of this funding would be reinstated after it went through this review process. But then in May, the grant was formally canceled.
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And then, of course, this storm hits. Kipnuk, Quigyllingoc. Other communities have been hit really hard by that, obviously, and folks started looking at this grant and the cancellation of this grant. You reached out to the EPA asking about that. What did they say?
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Right. So right from the very beginning, there was this awareness that there was had been this grant that was canceled. And we actually heard from Senator Lisa Burkowski saying essentially something along the lines of. And this was back on Monday, really, the day after the storm had hit, that while this grant itself wouldn't have actually saved the damage that was inflicted on Kepnik by this storm because the construction wouldn't have been completed in time, what this storm really shows is the importance, broadly speaking, of this grant and grants like it in protecting these types of communities. So then I reached out to the epa, and basically they said it's a very good thing that we canceled this grant, because if we hadn't, then construction would have begun and all the funding that had been awarded would be swept away in the Kuskokwim river, is what they said. So all we have is the written statement that the EPA provided from a spokesperson. So we kind of have to do some parsing of our own. But I think for the people of this community, this statement can come across as in a very sort of hurtful way, because reading between the lines, it essentially says, if there is a risk of this money being wasted, then why spend it at all?
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So now, I mean, from the EPA's perspective, that money has been saved in some account somewhere. Have they said anything about how that might be spent?
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Yeah. So the EPA actually canceled quite a few grants meant for Alaska Native villages and various Alaska communities that were related to the impacts of climate change. And after they canceled hundreds of millions of dollars of grants meant for Alaska, what they did was they actually said, now we're going to divert this money to the Denali Commission. And so Basically, this is $140 million that the EPA has said, thanks to the fact that we canceled all these grants, we've now given $140 million to the Denali Commission. But a lot of that money is already accounted for for projects that don't have to do with, you know, erosion prevention and things like that. So it's really comparing apples to oranges in some cases.
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Gotcha. So we're talking about a $20 million grant specific to Kipnock. But zooming out, the state has known for quite a while about the risks from this kind of a storm and these kind of impacts. Can you, can you kind of walk me through that? It goes back quite a ways, Right?
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Right. Yeah. It goes back really two decades. And it's both the state and federal agencies that have been doing assessments for years and kind of pointing to the due to erosion, loss of sea ice, loss of permafrost. All of that is contributing or exacerbating the risks, environmental risks for a lot of Alaska Native villages. And they've been pointing to potential flooding risks in many of these communities again for two decades. Now we see this paper trail of report after report after report saying we really need to be doing something about this. And I think that what this storm really shows is even though people have been saying we really need to be doing, not enough has been done. And not just for the communities that were affected by this storm, but for quite a few other communities that may be at risk in future storms.
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That was Anchorage Daily News reporter Ira Samuels. You can find her stories about Kipnuk's canceled EPA grant and the state's climate mitigation efforts, or lack thereof, @adn.com.
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Still.
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To come on Alaska News Nightly, how a group of women at elders and youth restored and shared a coming of age ceremony.
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I feel like the work that we're doing with them right now is healing multiple generations.
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That's ahead. Stay with us. Anchorage city leaders voted today to extend an emergency declaration as the city welcomes hundreds of people displaced by heavy flooding in western Alaska from Typhoon Ha long following a disaster declaration from Governor Mike Dunleavy. Anchorage Mayor Suzanne Lafrance declared a local emergency while the assembly voted to extend to mid December. Lafrance says the proclamation allows the city to quickly mobilize resources to help those in need.
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It will allow us to reallocate resources and deploy staff as necessary to support the state's emergency response.
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Currently, the city has two shelters for evacuees and expects to host up to 1600 people. The Anchorage school district is also anticipating an influx of students as families relocate to the city. Superintendent Jarrett Bryant says his team is working with the Lower Yukon School District to prevent a lengthy pause in any students learning. We are anticipating at least over 100.
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Students, if not more than 200 students.
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As the city works to settle those displaced by the storm, donations have poured in. An official with the Alaska Community foundation says the group has received over 11,000 donations totaling more than $1.4 million. He says the funding is set to be dispersed to those in need early next week. Dozens of attendees at the Alaska Federation of Natives convention stood in protest during US Senator Dan Sullivan's speech this morning. Throughout Sullivan's 35 minute address, people stood with their backs to the stage. Some held signs defending Medicaid. Sullivan supported a bill that cuts $1 trillion from the health care program over a decade. Others held signs supporting public radio, which Sullivan voted to defund. As a theme of his speech, Sullivan touted multiple provisions in the federal budget reconciliation bill that he said would be a boon for Alaska.
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What I like to call the Alaska Opportunity act, because there are so many things in this bill that we have been trying to get done as a state for our native communities.
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The bill also imposes volunteer and work requirements for Medicaid, but he emphasized that Alaska Native people are exempt from those requirements. In a brief interview after his speech, he did not clarify what steps recipients would have to take to prove they qualify for those exemptions.
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There's obviously ways. You got to verify it. You can't, you know, you gotta apply and verify it. I don't have the details, but we're getting the funding and it's in the law and that's important.
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In his convention speech, Sullivan also said he and his team worked, quote, night and day to make sure our rural radios continued to get the funding they need to stay on the air. In July, Sullivan was one of 51 senators who voted to claw back all federal funding for public broadcasting stations across the country. He defended that vote after his speech on ideological grounds.
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I'd been saying for years that npr, Corporation for Public Broadcasting was at risk with funding because it was biased reporting. And you and I might disagree, but I think it was very biased left wing reporting across the country.
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More than a dozen rural Alaska Public Radio stations that lost federal money were recently granted one time funding from the Department of Interior, which Sullivan took credit for. Some of Sullivan's remarks drew applause from the audience, including his efforts to combat sexual assault in Indigenous communities and his work advocating for Alaska Native ivory carvers to be excluded from laws aimed at preventing the poaching of elephants for their ivory. The AFN convention runs through Saturday afternoon in Anchorage. The Anchorage Health Department announced that a person who traveled to Anchorage was diagnosed with measles this week, according to a press release from the department. The person isolated after they arrived but could have exposed people at airports Monday in Anchorage, Seattle and Las Vegas. This is the second confirmed case of measles in Anchorage in 2025. In May, an unvaccinated Anchorage youth tested positive for the virus. In an interview this spring, Anchorage Health Department Chief Medical Officer Dr. George Conway described the disease.
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Measles is very avidly transmitted and it's potentially severe, especially for very young, very old and frail people. It tends to cause people to feel ill for a while, first possibly develop a fever and then they develop a typically a characteristic rash, typically facial, neck, possibly upper chest.
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The health department asks that anyone potentially exposed who isn't fully vaccinated stay away from large gatherings or vulnerable people from October 20th to November 3rd. The traveler was unvaccinated, according to the department, and arrived from an area of the US With a substantial measles outbreak, according to the department, Those up to date on their MMR or measles mumps rubella vaccine are unlikely to develop the measles. Alaskans can check their vaccination records on the docket app or by contacting their provider. The small Aleutian island town of Adak went dark on October 3rd when the city's main generator broke. The city declared a local emergency a week later. As KUCB's Sophia Stuart Rossi reports residents might be without power for another couple of weeks.
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Adak residents say food is starting to rot in freezers and many aren't able to heat their homes. Steven Carroll is a longtime resident and business owner.
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We're getting by, you know, enough. I don't know how long we can get by.
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He's using his own diesel generator to keep everything running in his home. But not all locals are in the same situation. Like his neighbor whose generator failed.
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He can't cook, he can't take a bath, he can't wash. He can't, you know, he can't do anything. So he brought his crock pot over and he had and his food is starting to rot his freezers.
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Carol says. Community members are helping each other out.
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I'm cooking burritos and tacos for like three different families because I have electricity. I can help these people out.
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The mayor of ADAK, Kathy McCune, says the city's generator suffered a catastrophic failure and won't be replaced until November. Adak City Council approved a local resolution on October 10th stating that the lack of electric power threatens public health and safety affecting heating, water supply, sewer and communication systems. The city is asking state officials to step in, saying the emergency is, quote, beyond the timely and effective response and recovery capability of local resources. TDX ADAC Generating supplies power to ADAC McCune says they're shipping a replacement generator on a barge that's currently in the Bering Sea. Still, it's not scheduled to arrive until November 3rd and that's weather dependent.
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Here's Mayor McCune with their generator, you know, the one that blew up or whatever the heck it did. They are not able to do anything else but wait, you know, for their, their generator that's on that bowhead barge or generators to come in here to hook it up to transformers.
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In the meantime, TDX commandeered a large generator from a closed fish processing plant. Now a part of the city has temporary power like the school building, which houses the clinic and city offices. The island's health center distributed headlamps to community members earlier this month. And a local fuel company is helping cover some fuel costs for residents and essential businesses running their own generators. Mayor McCune says the nonprofit running the local health center has secured two large generators and initially sought military transport to deliver them to the island. However, she says the state has not approved military aircraft use since, quote, TDX is making progress. In the meantime, the community of 33 people continues holding regular meetings to coordinate response efforts and keep residents informed. In Unalaska, I'm Sophia Stuart Rossi.
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Escalating tensions between the US And Canada fueled fears last winter that Canadians would respond by canceling cross border visits to Alaska this summer, potentially hitting local economies. As Avery Elfelt reports for the Alaska Desk, the numbers were down, but a full scale boycott never seemed to materialize.
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It's the tail end of co host season and people are filing in and out of the Alaska Sports Shop in Haines. They're buying lures, licenses and line like normal. But employee Gabe Long says something did feel amiss this summer. The number of Canadians filtering through the shop.
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We had, like I said, about eight Saturdays where we had significantly less people than I've had in last year.
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Long says the shop saw plenty of Canadians who've been coming to Haines for years, but typically they also see a lot of younger customers visiting for the first time.
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We definitely saw a reduction there, but luckily we still had a lot of friends that came down.
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Federal data published late last month shows about 3,700 fewer people entered the US at the port of entry near Haines between May and August of this year. Compared to last year, that's about a 16% decrease. Nationwide. Border crossings from Canada into the US during the same time period dropped by about 24% amid frustration over President Donald Trump's trade war and his claims that the US should annex Canada. Reba Hilton is the Haynesboro tourism director. She says she also observed the dip, including at the local visitor center.
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I think we were definitely negatively impacted and we saw a lot less, not only Canadian travelers but international travelers in general.
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The economic impact is less clear. Long at the sports shop, for instance, says it's hard to say if the situation hurt sales, but there were other factors at play, including that two of the shop's main competitors were closed this summer. Hanes Brewing company owner Paul Wheeler, meanwhile, says he noticed a drop in business one month over the summer. He says sales were down about 20%. He thinks it probably had something to do with fewer Canadians in town. Other business owners, though, say they really didn't notice anything at all. Rhonda Hinson is the owner of local store Alaska Rods.
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The Canadian traffic this summer, I'd say was pretty steady.
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I had folks in pretty much every.
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Weekend and a lot of times throughout.
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The week, the situation in Skagway looked a little different. Skagway is more than two hours closer than Haines to the nearest Canadian city of Whitehorse, and typically sees far more traffic from across the border. Between May and August of this year, Skagway's port of entry saw more than three times the number of border crossings than the port of entry near Haines. All told, Skagway saw a much smaller 4% drop in crossings this year during the four month period. Jamie Bricker is the Skagway tourism director. In the run up to the summer, she says she was worried the community would see fewer visitors from the Yukon Territory, and in some cases it did seem like people chose not to come. But overall, she adds, her worries didn't come to fruition.
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I mean, the South Klondike highway feels like family. It doesn't feel like one country versus another, burger says.
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The majority of folks seem to have made a special exception to visit their Alaskan neighbors anyway. Reporting in Haines, I'm Avery Elphelt.
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In one Danae family there hadn't been a ceremony for girls coming of age for three generations. Then a group of aunties, mothers and daughters came together to restore it, first just for their family and then for all young Alaska Native women interested in learning. They presented their work at the Elders and Youth Conference in Anchorage this week. The Alaska Desk, iliona Nydin reports.
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14 year old Manu David is pouring hot tea blended by hand. She brings cups to women of all ages who fill a room during a workshop at the Elders and Youth Conference.
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So there's raspberry leaf and chamomile tea and then there's nettle and mint tea.
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David and other girls made these teas during a gathering for girls coming of age called Nadoye Dion. Her family has been reviving this dine tradition through sharing circles where everyone takes turns talking about what's on their heart. They also harvest plant medicine, make their own body products and work on traditional skills like sewing and beading. David says she likes activities the most.
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It's really fun. It's just like everybody gets together and we just share anything and everything. It's just a good time to like gather around and to do fun stuff and to learn.
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At the Elders and Youth Conference, young girls shared their experience from those gatherings which are also called the Moontime Circles. Participants were also invited to take part through a conversation and hands on activities. Helena Jacobs is one of the women leading the event and has been working with the girls during Na Doi Dion.
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Oh, I just felt so proud of these girls for being so willing to share their knowledge. I feel like the work that we're doing with them right now is healing multiple generations.
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Jacobs, who is David's aunt, says that several years ago her family started to gather every few months around the full and new moon. They invited elders to share their knowledge. Gifted from Denane relatives in Alaska and their Cree and Ojibwe family from Canada, they realized there was a broader interest in reviving coming of age ceremonies. Jacob says that about a year ago they partnered with the Alaska Native Birth Workers community and transitioned the family gatherings into a community event for teenage girls.
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To just empower them with knowledge about their bodies and just surround them with a lot of love and support throughout these big transitions in life that can sometimes feel kind of scary or isolating.
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At the Elders on Youth Workshop, the participants joined in a circle and shared tears and laughter from their own stories. Kimalik Teter is Yupik and Czupik from St. Mary's who now lives in Fairbanks. She says she came to the workshop because she wanted to learn how to guide her four year old daughter. But Titor says she realized that she herself still wants guidance.
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You get of age of different things all throughout your life.
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Titor says that in Yupik culture, the ceremonies celebrate different milestones, like when a woman catches her first fish, makes her first thing and has her first baby. Titor says that the workshop reminded her that it's not too late to honor transitions in her life.
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So I think maybe deep down I just really wanted this for me, not just for my baby.
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The workshop closed with two activities. Women and girls wrote a formation for themselves and others and connected them by a string. They also made heating pads filled with rice and fragrances. Organizers invited Alaska Native women who want teenage girls in their family to attend the moontime gatherings to sign up at the events page on the Alaska Native Birth Workers community website in Anchorage. I am Alyona Knighton.
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And that's all for this edition of Alaska News Nightly. If you missed any of tonight's stories, we're online@alaskapublic.org and wherever you get your podcasts. We had reports tonight from Eric Stone and Bethel, Samantha Watson, Wesley Early, Rachel, Cassandra and Alone and Iidan and Amy in Anchorage, Sophia Stuart Rossi in Unalaska and Avery Elfeld in Haynes. If you want to send us a news tip, question or comment, email us at newsalaskapublic. Org. Our audio engineer tonight is Tobin Shelby. Madeline Rose is our producer and I'm Casey Grove. Have a great weekend.