Alaska News Nightly: Wednesday, October 22, 2025

Summary

Alaska News Nightly: Wednesday, October 22, 2025

Podcast Summary

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Overview

This episode of Alaska News Nightly, hosted by Casey Grove, dives into the far-reaching impacts of Typhoon Ha Long in Western Alaska, touching on themes of disaster assistance, the experiences and struggles of evacuees, challenges in food security due to a federal shutdown, and broader issues from infrastructure outages to historic recognitions and shifts in tourism. The reporting is comprehensive, spanning personal stories from displaced residents to statewide developments.

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Key Stories and Insights

1. Ex-Typhoon Ha Long: A Community in Crisis

• Uncertainty for Evacuees

  • Hundreds displaced from Western Alaska, especially Kipnuk, remain in mass Red Cross shelters in Anchorage after their homes were destroyed by floodwaters.
  • The pressing question from evacuees: “Can we go home?” (Taylor Sousan, Red Cross, [00:23])
  • Authorities and aid workers are unable to provide answers on timelines for returning or rebuilding.

• President Trump’s Disaster Declaration

  • President Trump declared a disaster, unlocking $25 million for state, local, and tribal governments, but it’s unclear if individual assistance for residents (up to $85,000 each) will be available.
  • Trump emphasizes reshaping disaster response to place greater responsibility on states.
    • Quote: “Alaska, I will never let you down.” (President Trump, [01:02])

• In the Shelters: Between Gratitude and Grief

  • Sheltered evacuees, like Julia Stone, oscillate between thankfulness and profound loss.
    • Quote: “Everybody’s been helping each other … God bless them all. I’m very thankful.” (Julia Stone, [03:39])
    • Trauma persists, especially at night: “I think about people struggling and people having trauma and nightmares.” (Julia Stone, [03:05])
  • Red Cross provides food, medical care, and limited comforts like movies and art for children, but mass sheltering is tough on mental health.
    • Quote: “This is not how people want to live for any extended period of time.” (Taylor Sousan, [05:12])
  • Some, like Kimberly Kayuna, struggle with the crowded environment.
    • Quote: “I feel like I’m always grumpy... I’m happier in the morning. Nighttime, I can never sleep.” (Kimberly Kayuna, [05:47])
  • Homesickness and longing for normalcy are pervasive.
    • Quote: “I miss home. I really do miss home.” (Evacuee, [06:06])
  • Louis Almick looks to the Chugach Mountains, missing the openness of the Bering Sea, and emphasizes the value of safety and community.
    • Quote: “When I hear the little babies… that’s the most beautiful sound you could ever hear.” (Louis Almick, [07:24])

2. Food Assistance Paused Due to Federal Shutdown

• Suspension of SNAP Benefits
  • Alaska’s 66,000 SNAP recipients will not receive November benefits unless the shutdown ends; state is unable to supplement federal funds.
  • Disaster victims who lost food can apply for reissued October benefits ([08:43]).
  • Michelle DeWitt warns local food security systems are already strained:
    • Quote: “I’m extremely concerned about people being hungry next month if this announcement is actually carried through.” (Michelle DeWitt, [09:06])
  • Residents are encouraged to seek help from food banks; local giving is encouraged for those with resources.

3. Nightmute and Nelson Island: Historic and Environmental Loss

• Extraordinary Storm Damage and Erosion
  • In Nightmute, wind gusts up to 100 mph caused unprecedented flooding; homes literally swept off foundations ([10:36]).
    • Quote: “Our village is right along the hillside, looked like a beach. … I’ve never seen anything like this.” (Clement George, [10:36])
  • Longstanding seasonal subsistence camps like Unkmute were destroyed, wiping out generational livelihoods.
    • Quote: “It’s wiped out the weaker houses... The stronger houses, newer houses, they floated.” (Robert Pitka, [13:30])
  • Environmental shift: saltwater contamination of subsistence lakes and ponds, devastating local wildlife and fishery resources.
    • Quote: “The lakes, the ponds… all filled with salt water. … They’re probably wiped out.” (Robert Pitka, [12:37])
  • This storm path is unprecedented in Yupik oral history.
    • Quote: “There’s no stories like that. The stories used to be calm all the time.” (Robert Pitka, [14:50])

4. St. Lawrence Island: Building Food Security with Reindeer

• Savunga’s Meat Processing Plant
  • With volatile marine resources, reindeer become a vital alternative.
  • A new processing plant aims to bolster food sovereignty and provide local jobs.
    • Quote: “I hope to sell it to the folks on the island. … There is a market for it.” (Freeman Kinnicook, [17:59])
    • Quote: “Reindeer tastes a lot better than steak.” (Perry Idiganakpangoi, [18:40])
  • Facility set for imminent completion, with potential expansion to other Alaska villages, pending federal certification (delayed by shutdown).

5. Adak Power Outage: Infrastructure Challenges in Remote Alaska

• Seventeen Days Without Power
  • Residents and businesses relied on generators, facing high costs and hardship.
    • Quote: “It hurt and I’m sure everybody felt that cramp … to stay warm.” ([19:40])
  • Repairs required flying in crews; aging infrastructure and remote logistics prolong restoration and complicate future resilience plans ([20:34]).
  • Calls from the community for a more sustainable, reliable solution than backup generators.

6. Alaska Women’s Hall of Fame Inductees

• Honoring Alaska Native Leaders
  • Journalist Joclin Estes and her great-grandmother, civil rights leader Tillie Paul Tamri, are recognized.
  • Tamri’s legacy: fighting for Native voting rights in 1922.
    • Quote: “She was walking down the street... he’d just been kicked out of voting.” (Joclin Estes, [21:47])

7. Record Alaska Tourism Season and Fallout from Shutdown

• Tourism Growth and Federal Closures
  • Over 3 million annual visitors—a new record, with summer cruise travel being central. Juneau is the busiest port ([21:57]).
  • Government shutdown closed key museums and historical sites, dramatically altering Skagway’s typical tourist experience.
    • Quote: “I wish the museums would have been open because then we would have went in them. But because of the government, we don’t get to see them.” (Tammy Harms, [24:24])
    • Quote: “We were very excited to come and see everything in the museum, and it did say on Google Maps that it was open today.” (Julia Dixon, [25:11])
    • Disappointment was especially acute for international visitors unaware of the shutdown’s impacts.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Unknowns for Displaced Alaskans:
  • “What’s next for us? … And that is not something that we know at this time.”
    — Taylor Sousan, Red Cross ([00:19], [04:11])
• On SNAP Benefits Suspension:
  • “I’m extremely concerned about people being hungry next month if this announcement is actually carried through.”
    — Michelle DeWitt, Bethel Community Services Foundation ([09:06])
• On Environmental Upheaval:
  • “It was like we’re in the ocean. … I’ve lived here all my life. I’ve never seen anything like this.”
    — Clement George, Nightmute ([10:36])
• On Tourism Disappointments:
  • “Disappointing. We were very excited to come and see everything in the museum.”
    — Julia Dixon, UK Visitor ([25:11])

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Timed Segments of Interest

• Shelter Life for Evacuees: [02:56]-[07:37]
• SNAP/Food Security Crisis: [07:44]-[09:22]
• Nightmute Environmental Catastrophe: [10:28]-[15:17]
• St. Lawrence Island Reindeer Project: [15:17]-[19:12]
• Adak Power Outage: [19:12]-[21:11]
• Honoring Alaska Women: [21:11]-[21:57]
• Tourism Shutdown Effects in Skagway: [23:57]-[25:42]

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Tone & Language

The episode maintains a compassionate, community-centered tone, emphasizing the resilience and challenges of Alaskans. It blends factual reporting with first-person accounts, expert analysis, and on-the-ground storytelling.

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For Listeners:

This episode is a tapestry of Alaska’s current hardships and strengths: climate-induced havoc, community solidarity, food insecurity amid government shutdown, infrastructure woes, and rich historical legacies—all set against a backdrop of record tourism and deepening uncertainty. If you want to understand what Alaska is facing right now, both in human and systemic terms, this episode is a must-listen.

Transcript

[Casey Grove]

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 U.S. territories.

[Taylor Sousan]

I think that that is the biggest question is what's next for us and.

[Evacuees/Community Members]

Can we go home?

[Taylor Sousan]

And that is not something that we know at this time.

[Casey Grove]

Those displaced by ex Typhoon Ha Long face an uncertain future in Anchorage. From Alaska Public Media, this is statewide news on Alaska News nightly for Wednesday, October 22nd. Good evening. I'm Casey Grove. Also tonight, food assistance benefits in Alaska are set to pause as the government.

[Evacuees/Community Members]

Shutdown continues, and I'm extremely concerned about.

[Taylor Sousan]

People being hungry next month.

[Casey Grove]

Those stories and more tonight on Alaska News Nightly.

[Evacuees/Community Members]

Foreign.

[Casey Grove]

President Trump has signed a disaster declaration for western Alaska, unlocking millions of dollars to fund the response and compensate state, local and tribal governments for their expenditures. The details of what kind of aid is included in the declaration were not immediately clear. President Trump announced on social media that he's approved $25 million for Alaska and portrayed the assistance as a political reward to voters. He said it was an honor to deliver for the great state of Alaska, which I won big in 2016, 2020 and 2024. And he added in all caps, alaska, I will never let you down. What's unknown is whether Trump is allowing storm survivors to access the individual assistance program that would allow individuals and households to claim up to $85,000 for their losses. Alaska's governor and congressional delegation thanked Trump for the declaration, but their offices could not say whether it includes individual assistance. As of this afternoon, the declaration was not posted on the White House website, nor that of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Trump has a goal of reforming federal disaster response, which he suspects of political bias. He has said he wants to lessen the role of the federal government in disaster response and put more of the responsibility on the states. The western Alaska storm damage may provide insight into his new approach as it unfolds. In the days after Typhoon Ha Long tore through western Alaska, the state evacuated hundreds of people to Anchorage. Now many of them are staying at two mass shelters in the city run by the Red Cross and a network of partner organizations. As Alaska Public Media's Hannah Flor reports, the evacuees say they mostly have what they need, but it's the things the Red Cross can't change that haunt them.

[Hannah Flor]

Most of the time, Julia Stone is just thankful she and her loved ones are safe. But at night, lying on her cot, it's different.

[Evacuees/Community Members]

I think about home. I think about people struggling and people having trauma and nightmares. What they went through and what we went through, it was a chaos.

[Hannah Flor]

She evacuated Kipnak with her two sons and three grandchildren four days after typhoon halong flooded her village, destroying so many homes. Now she's staying at a shelter in midtown Anchorage, one of many sleeping in a huge room. But over and over, she says she can't complain.

[Evacuees/Community Members]

Everybody's been helping each other. Everybody in there. God bless them all. I'm very thankful.

[Hannah Flor]

Other evacuees staying at the shelter say similar things. They're thankful, but it is so hard. Every sentence. They move between deep gratitude and deep grief. Taylor Sousan is with the Red Cross. She says while her organization is working hard to make sure the evacuees have what they need, it can provide what she hears they want most answers about what the future holds.

[Taylor Sousan]

I think that that is the biggest question is what's next for us and.

[Evacuees/Community Members]

Can we go home?

[Taylor Sousan]

And that is not something that we know at this time.

[Hannah Flor]

For now, there's a whole complex web of logistics to put in place in Anchorage. There's the basics, food and clothes, toiletries and diapers, and medical screenings. There are showers at the Alaska Airlines center, but at the other shelter downtown, at the Eagan center, people have to take a shuttle or use one of the outdoor trailer showers. There are so many systems to set up, too. A bus do laundry, a hub for reuniting with friends and family. And with pets left behind. There's wi fi and some public use computers, totes that lock so people's possessions are safe. A temporary postal service. And Sausan says they're doing what they can to bring a little joy into the shelters. Things like movies and art for the kids, half court basketball games, the community potluck. Still, the evacuees are all packed in hundreds in one place. Salzin says that part can be tough for people.

[Taylor Sousan]

We know that congregate sheltering, what we call this like sort of mega sheltering thing is not ideal. This is not how people want to live for any extended period of time.

[Hannah Flor]

But she says the Red Cross will keep the shelters open as long as they're needed. There's no time limit. For Kimberly Kayuna, there is a time limit. She says she's not used to being around so many people. Yeah, a lot of folks at the Alaska Airlines center are from Kipna just like she is, but she likes calm. It is not calm in the shelter.

[Evacuees/Community Members]

I feel like I'm always grumpy.

[Hannah Flor]

But morning, it's peaceful, happier.

[Evacuees/Community Members]

I'm happier in the morning. Nighttime, I can never sleep.

[Hannah Flor]

It is better than being outside, she says. Still, some people already want to go back home. What about you?

[Evacuees/Community Members]

I do.

[Hannah Flor]

I'm not used to it.

[Evacuees/Community Members]

I miss home. I really do miss home.

[Hannah Flor]

Louis Almick misses home, too. Standing outside the shelter smoking a cigarette, he looks up at the Chugach Mountains east of the city, pink with the morning light. Beautiful, he says. But it's not Kipnuk. Out on the edge of the Bering Sea.

[Evacuees/Community Members]

Back home, you could see as far as the eye can see. There's no trees, and you could just see the horizon. And that's one of the things I miss, you know, seeing the sunset and.

[Hannah Flor]

The sunrise, he says. After everything everyone went through, the most important thing is that they're safe, that they still have a place to stay. So it's hard not to think about what they left behind.

[Evacuees/Community Members]

Our home. Our home that provides us with food and, you know, we go out there, go hunting, go do this, and that.

[Evan Erickson]

Is.

[Evacuees/Community Members]

All taken away from us. It's scary. I don't know how to say it.

[Hannah Flor]

He doesn't know what comes next. He wants to go back, but he's not sure where back is. He's been talking with others from Kipnak about the future rebuild or relocate. No one has answers yet. For the time being, he'll stay here. He doesn't mind being around so many people, he says sometimes they bring him joy.

[Evacuees/Community Members]

When I hear the little babies and the little children laughing, playing, running around happy, that's the beautiful sound you could ever hear.

[Hannah Flor]

The other thing that brings him joy, he says, is just knowing that the elders are safe. In Anchorage, I'm Anna Flor.

[Casey Grove]

Alaskans will not receive SNAP or food stamp benefits for November, according to the state Division of Public Assistance. That's unless the federal government shutdown ends before then. The state issued October benefits at the end of September before the government shutdown. But Deb Etheridge, director of the division, says Alaska is unable to compensate for the lack of federal funds for November.

[Evacuees/Community Members]

Unfortunately, due to the ongoing federal government.

[Taylor Sousan]

Shutdown, USDA's Food Nutrition Services has directed.

[Evacuees/Community Members]

All states to stop issuance in November for SNAP benefits because there's no federal funds available.

[Casey Grove]

Snap serves about 66,000 Alaskans. Etheridge says it helps low income Alaskans buy food they need for good health, and the division says the state could not make up for the benefits for technical and logistical reasons. Etheridge says the division will continue adding SNAP beneficiaries during the shutdown. And she says Alaskans who lost food because of the storm in Western Alaska can apply to get October SNAP benefits reissued.

[Evacuees/Community Members]

Our eligibility technicians who are at the Alaska Airlines center and the Eagan center can do that and at our Bethel office.

[Casey Grove]

But Michelle DeWitt, executive director of Bethel Community Services foundation, says the state's formal food security safety nets are already stretched thin in the wake of the storm. And she says a pause on SNAP benefits will layer disaster upon disaster.

[Evacuees/Community Members]

This leaves folks with very few formal system resources and I'm extremely concerned about people being hungry next month if this announcement is actually carried through.

[Casey Grove]

DeWitt says Alaskans in need should reach out to their local food banks for help, and she encourages Alaskans with resources to donate money or grocery items to food banks and to donate informally to community members who need food. During the 2018 government shutdown, Snap benefits were released early to prevent a lapse in assistance. Several other states have announced a similar pause in benefits starting in November. Still to come on Alaska News Nightly, tourists hoping to visit federally run museums are met with locked doors. Disappointing.

[Evacuees/Community Members]

We were very excited to come and.

[Hannah Flor]

See everything in the museum and it.

[Evacuees/Community Members]

Did say on Google Maps that it was open today.

[Casey Grove]

That's ahead. Stay with us. Nelson island is north of communities hit hardest by the remnants of Typhoon Ha Long. During the storm, wind speeds on the island reached 100 miles per hour and caused massive flooding of low lying areas. As KYUK's Evan Erickson reports, the storm not only brought unprecedented damage to the village of Nightmute, but wiped out a nearby seasonal camp that has been part of the fabric of life in the region beyond living memory.

[Evan Erickson]

Nightmute tribal administrator Clement George says his riverside community looked completely different when daylight broke on the morning of October 12th.

[Evacuees/Community Members]

It was like we're in the ocean. Our village is right along the hillside look like a beach. I've lived here all my life. I've never seen anything like this.

[Evan Erickson]

Wind gusts as high as 100 miles per hour among the strongest record from the remnants of Typhoon ha long plowed water miles up into the tundra surrounding Night. Mute. When the storm hit, George says all he could see out his window were waves and blowing water. In the distance he saw local rescue efforts begin lights moving back and forth along Nightmute's long raised boardwalks.

[Evacuees/Community Members]

There were men, young men using ATVs to call them to the school.

[Evan Erickson]

George says he's not sure how the men were able to ply four wheelers along the boardwalks in hurricane force winds, helping at least 50 people reach the school.

[Evacuees/Community Members]

I don't know. Miracle.

[Evan Erickson]

The storm driven flooding lifted more than a dozen homes and nightmute off their foundations. It knocked over fuel tanks, leaving the smell of stove oil in the air, and pushed water into the community's landfill and sewage lagoon. At least 19 people have since been evacuated. Much of the community sits at less than 10ft above sea level. Some areas are as low as a couple feet above the waterline. When bering sea tides raised the level of the Tuksuk river in the wake of the storm, George says one thing stands out.

[Evacuees/Community Members]

Zeros never heard some of the riverside. The tundra on there is all the town.

[Evan Erickson]

Some parts the community has grappled with riverbank erosion for decades. George says permafrost thaw made the situation worse for the most vulnerable homes on the west end of town as they sank faster into the ground. Now many of those homes are a complete loss. Downriver from nightmute. The storm also brought severe erosion to the mouth of the river and surrounding bay across from the community of Tuksuk bay.

[Evacuees/Community Members]

We just totally changed our terrain features. Along the coast across the bay, that's Tuksuk bay.

[Evan Erickson]

Tribal administrator Robert Pitka.

[Evacuees/Community Members]

The lakes, the ponds where we usually subsist for blackfish, pikes, lusfish. It's all filled with salt water. Now. Think about, you know, the beaver, the mink, muskrats, ice mouse. They're probably wiped out. It's just going to change. It's just. It's crazy.

[Evan Erickson]

Pitka says numerous fish wracks lining the bay were also wiped out by the storm. Boats pulled up onto dry land for protection were scattered around. But Tuksuk bay itself, Built on slightly higher ground, Avoided serious infrastructure damage and maintained power during ha long. Keeping the power on allowed its weather station to record a 100 mile per hour wind gust, the highest ever measured on Nelson island. Several miles west along the coast, the seasonal subsistence camp and village known as um commute Was no match for the winds.

[Evacuees/Community Members]

It's wiped out the weaker houses. Older houses are just gone. They're demolished or just gone. The stronger houses, newer houses, they floated. They could have float forever away into the ocean, but they hit the cliff edges, and that's where they are now.

[Evan Erickson]

In the once idyllic meadow carved out of the cliffside, Dozens of seasonal homes and a catholic church have been destroyed before these modern structures arrived, and Tuksuk bay was founded nearby. Unkhomute was a place of sod houses, where the people of nightmute traveled in the spring and summer months to harvest herring, halibut, salmon, seals, shellfish, and greens. Only months before halong hit, many residents were there Doing much the same. Clement George says Nightmute had relied on Unkamut for as much as 75% of its subsistence needs. It had been that way longer than anyone can remember. Pitka says the site and surrounding area have been used for millennia, and usually it's protected. To the southwest, Nunavac island serves as a shield to break the destructive force of giant waves on the open ocean. But during Ha Long, the winds did something that Pitka can't ever recall seeing. They shifted closer to due south, shooting the gap between Nunavac and Nelson Island. It's something Pitka says isn't mentioned in Yupik oral histories of the area.

[Evacuees/Community Members]

There's no stories like that. The stories used to be calm all the time.

[Evan Erickson]

Despite the devastating loss, Pitka says the immediate concern for his community is assisting Nightmute with its recovery effort. Figuring out what to do about Ummkamute can come later. For George, there is endless work to be done to secure the community before freeze up. But he has already seen what a community can do in crisis. In Bethel, I'm Evan erickson.

[Casey Grove]

Residents of St. Lawrence island in the Bering Sea have traditionally subsisted on walrus, whales and fish. But availability of marine resources has been changing and reindeer have become a staple. Now Sivunga is almost done building a meat processing facility that can turn it into a business. Alyona Nydin with the Alaska desk has more.

[Evacuees/Community Members]

Kind of bumpy, huh?

[Alyona Nydin]

Richmond Thule rides his four wheeler across the wet tundra outside of Savunga. The mountains of black volcanic rock glisten behind him in the September sun and the Bering Sea in front. Thule is a third generation chief reindeer herder. He pauses to spot the animals through his binoculars.

[Evacuees/Community Members]

All summer. The reindeer out again.

[Alyona Nydin]

St. Lawrence island sits 100 miles west from mainland Alaska with two villages on it, Sawunga and Gamble. It's also home to several thousand free range reindeer. In the late 1800s, famine struck the island and the animals were introduced here as a food source. Today, the herd continues to support the island as warming conditions disrupt subsistence and storms can hold up food deliveries for weeks. Now Sawunga is building a reindeer meat processing facility. Tuli, like other Sawunga residents, hunts various animals.

[Evacuees/Community Members]

Whaling captives? Yeah, whaling Waller, field ranger, bird mission, all of it.

[Alyona Nydin]

Batuli says that hunting has been changing. The sea ice around the island sets up later and is less stable.

[Evacuees/Community Members]

Back in 2012, both communities didn't get no water, so we gave all the household two reindeer each. For both communities.

[Alyona Nydin]

The village of Savunga is ramping up its food sovereignty efforts even further with a new facility that could transform processing of reindeer in the field and household kitchens into a small scale industry. Once the facility opens, pre portioned cuts of meat will be available for sale. Tuli is excited.

[Evacuees/Community Members]

Yeah, can't wait.

[Alyona Nydin]

The shiny modular plant is next to the beach with a temporary corral by the entrance. Inside there are several rooms for cooling and freezing meat. Freeman Kinnicook is the business director of the Sawunga Reindeer Commercial Company, a subsidiary of the village that will manage the facility. He says the plan is to slaughter reindeer about four times a year and sell it locally. In the future there might be a chance to distribute it to other Alaska villages as well.

[Evacuees/Community Members]

For sure, I hope to sell it to the folks on the island. When we did those trial runs, we would sell on Facebook and we couldn't keep up with the demand. So really it's undecided who the market is, but I know there is a market for it.

[Alyona Nydin]

Perry Idiganakpangoi is a subsistence hunter and one of the locals working on a project. He is rearranging the refrigeration blocks. Pangovi says the new facility already brought a much needed influx of jobs to the village and might open new economic opportunities.

[Evacuees/Community Members]

It would be nice to have our stores selling our local reindeer because it's hard to afford that steak. It's like 50, $60 for a piece of steak and to me reindeer tastes a lot better than steak.

[Alyona Nydin]

Construction is scheduled to be completed in the coming weeks. Federal regulators plan to certify the plant for commercial use, though the government shutdown might hinder their visit. With reporting from Svunga, I am Alena Nydin.

[Casey Grove]

That was the third in a four part series from the Alaska desk called Shelf Life, which looks at food security in Alaska. Power has been restored to all ADAC residents following a 17 day outage. City council members met Tuesday evening and discussed the electrical failure. KUCB's Sophia Stuart Rossi reports the outage.

[Taylor Sousan]

Forced residents and businesses to rely on generators for heat and electricity. One council member called the experience rough and expensive.

[Evacuees/Community Members]

It hurt and I'm sure everybody felt that cramped on having to go get gas and keep generators going to stay warm.

[Taylor Sousan]

TDX ADAC Generating supplies power to the community. It flew in a repair crew Saturday and fixed both an underground fault and an overhead line issue. Company spokesperson Lynette Ampadou says technicians pulled cables from a junction box to repair underground wiring and replaced damaged cutouts on on overhead lines.

[Evacuees/Community Members]

But we can say today that as of yesterday 1 o' clock PM power has been restored to all of those homes, and so we are going to be continually working with the city, continue working with residents and our partners at LU Ventures whenever we have concerns about power outages and how people are going to be getting fuel.

[Taylor Sousan]

The outage was caused by a catastrophic alternator failure in the community's backup generator, according to Ampadu. TDX already had replacement generators on a barge headed to ADAC before the outage occurred. Ampadu says the remote community faces unique challenges. ADAC operates on aging military infrastructure that requires ongoing upgrades. The company recommends residents and business owners have backup generators in case anomalies happen. However, residents and council members in Tuesday night's meeting say that's unacceptable and are seeking a better solution. In Unalaska, I'm Sophia Stewart Rossi.

[Casey Grove]

Ten women were inducted into the Alaska Women's hall of Fame yesterday, including Joclin Estes, an Alaska Native journalist. Estes most recently was a national correspondent for Indian Country Today and also worked as news director at knba. Estes Islingit with ties to Rangel but she is not the only Alaska Native to be honored.

[Evacuees/Community Members]

Another Alaska Native is my great grandmother, Tillie Paul Tamri. She was a civil rights leader in the early 20th century.

[Casey Grove]

Last week, when Estes helped to co host KNBA's live coverage of the Alaska Federation of Natives convention, she talked about how her grandmother got arrested in 1922.

[Evacuees/Community Members]

She was walking down the street and she saw Charlie Jones, Chief Shakes. She stopped to visit with him and he said he'd just been kicked out.

[Casey Grove]

Of voting, estes says. Her grandmother accompanied Chief Shakes back to the polls and he was again refused the right to vote. Shakes was told he could not vote because he wasn't a citizen. The two were indicted. Tamri's son, William Paul, later successfully defended them. Over 3 million people visited Alaska during the tourism season that ended in April 2025, marking a new record for the state. That was a takeaway during the Tourism in Review session at the Alaska Travel Industry Association's annual convention in Anchorage on Tuesday. The report includes data over the 12 month period starting in May 2024 and shows 33,000 more visitors came to Alaska compared to the previous travel season. McKinley Research Group gathered the data and found almost 90% of travelers that came to Alaska did so in the summer. Over half of visitors came on a cruise ship, the report says. Juneau's port had the highest number of passengers at 1.7 million, almost 4% higher than the previous year. Winter travel to Alaska has been increasing over the long term, but it dipped more than 5% last year, according to the report. Fewer than 400,000 people came to the state during the winter months. It'll be months more before Tourism data for 2025 is available, but early indicators show a slight decrease in cruise visitors. The tourism sector supported nearly 50,000 jobs last year, according to the report. Skagway is a town that sells itself on history. It celebrates the miners and prostitutes of the Gold Rush of the late 1800s. That unique history brings in approximately 10,000 cruise ship passengers a day during tourist season. But when the federal government shut down October 1, a majority of the town's museums closed. K and S reporter Melinda Munson spoke with visitors from across the world who were shut out of the town's many museums.

[Taylor Sousan]

That's the sound of just one of many locked doors. It greeted Skagway visitors across the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical park, which encompasses much of Skagway's tourist district. Tammy Harms is from Oregon. She and her sister were among a surprisingly high number of tourists focused on historical signs that dot Broadway Street. With the park museums closed, it was their only option for gleaning a little history about Skagway.

[Evacuees/Community Members]

Well, we came in on a cruise ship and we're just walking around town and I wish the museums would have been open because then we would have went in them. But because of the government, we don't get to see them.

[Taylor Sousan]

Canadian Liz Jamison was visiting with her sister. She didn't plan on going into a jewelry store. She was in Skagway for a history lesson. Jamison was crushed that she didn't have access to the federal museums, probably the.

[Casey Grove]

Main purpose for being here.

[Taylor Sousan]

Her sister Ruth Davie, was equally disappointed. She says they'll probably never have the opportunity to come this way again. Two British visitors stood outside the park's visitor center. Julia Dixon and her traveling companion are from England. They were unaware of the political situation and confused why the center was closed.

[Casey Grove]

Disappointing.

[Evacuees/Community Members]

We were very excited to come and see everything in the museum, and it did say on Google Maps that it was open today, so I'm not sure why.

[Taylor Sousan]

Her companion, Christopher Holden, says he's been watching US Politics with growing concern. He was sad that the budget dispute affected this Alaska park.

[Evacuees/Community Members]

It's a beautiful place. It's such a shame.

[Taylor Sousan]

All was not lost for Dixon and Holden, who planned on taking a White Pass and Yukon Route railway expedition up the mountain. But they say their historical Skagway trip was much less historical than expected.

[Casey Grove]

That was Melinda Munson in Skagway. And that's all for this edition of Alaska News Nightly. If you missed any of tonight's stories, we're [e-mail] and wherever you get your podcasts. We had reports tonight from Liz Ruskin in Washington, D.C. hannah Flor, Rachel Cassandra, Rhonda McBride and Ava White in Anchorage, Evan Erickson in Bethel, Alyona Knighton in Sivunga, Sophia Stuart Rossi in Unalaska, and Melinda Munson in Skagway. If you want to send us a news tip, question or comment, email [e-mail] Our audio engineer is Chris Hyde. Madeline Rose as our producer. I'm Casey Grove. Good night.