Rep. Nellie Jimmie, a Democrat from Toksook Bay, broke down in tears recounting her experience there the night ex-Typhoon Halong made landfall on the west coast of Alaska in October.
“We didn’t sleep the whole night, and this was the first time I’ve ever felt so helpless, where I knew I couldn’t protect my own daughter,” she told fellow lawmakers at a joint hearing with the House Tribal Affairs and Community and Regional Affairs committees on Feb. 3.
“Just by chance, my daughter, she came upon TikTok, where people were posting live from Kipnuk about their water coming in quickly, and their homes were floating away. And people were trapped in their houses, and even though they called for help, they couldn’t get help,” she said tearfully.
Bryan Fisher, director of the Alaska Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, presented an update to legislators and said that according to a recent federal assessment, the storm damage is estimated to cost $125 million. He called the storm damage “catastrophic and stressed that the figure is an early estimate.
“I would suspect, just based on my experience doing this for a long time, that that dollar figure is going to go up,” he said.
He said with the scale of destruction, the rebuilding effort will take years.
Fisher noted that the disaster recovery from Typhoon Merbok that hit in 2022 cost the state roughly $170 million in damage.
The October storms devastated Western Alaska coastal communities, damaging thousands of structures, roads, airports and critical infrastructure, and prompting thousands to evacuate to other villages, Bethel and Anchorage. The relief effort was also cut off by the onset of winter, Fisher added, and so when breakup occurs in the spring, recovery efforts will begin anew.
Jimmie said she visited the hardest-hit communities of Kipnuk and Kwigillingok in the weeks after the storm and also visited with families displaced to Anchorage where they had evacuated with only one suitcase per person. She thanked state emergency officials and legislators gathered at the hearing.
“I know it’s going to be a long recovery, and I know the trauma that we have suffered out there. But how do you leave a village where your ancestors came from? Where grandmothers, grandfathers passed down the knowledge of where to hunt, when to hunt, how to process the subsistence catch. There’s just so much loss,” she said. “I just hope we get as much assistance as we can to rebuild.”
Fischer, who has spent over 30 years in emergency management in Alaska, said the storm was unlike anything he has seen here. “I didn’t think in my lifetime I would see a flooding disaster or coastal storm disaster in Alaska that looked very similar to Hurricane Katrina, with the military and Coast Guard helicopters doing hoist rescues,” he told lawmakers. But unlike Hurricane Katrina, he added, homes were displaced from their foundations and washed away upwards of 10 or 12 miles away.
Fisher emphasized the state disaster response is a coordinated effort in partnership with local and tribal governments, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and a variety of state agencies from health to transportation, education, and environmental conservation.
“And all of the agencies are going to be in this as long as it takes to make sure we can get you home, back to where you want to be,” he said, following Jimmie’s testimony. “And back on kind of the new normal moving forward.”
Fisher said this summer multiagency disaster crews will undertake a “very significant cleanup mission” to remove hazardous waste, repair water and sewer systems and stabilize communities. They will also collect home heating oil tanks and contaminated soil from both petroleum products and household hazardous waste, he said.
For the hardest hit communities of Kipnuk and Kwigillingok, Fisher said the tribal councils have asked residents not to return until critical repairs have been completed.
While some communities are working on repairs through the winter, Fisher said the state is waiting on additional FEMA approval for rebuilding homes next summer.
“If approved, that will allow us to rebuild homes, that will allow us to provide labor and shipping support and material support, and financial support to repair homes above what is the traditional maximum amount of financial assistance a homeowner can receive,” he said.
Currently FEMA is providing disaster assistance of up to $44,800 per household for replacement of personal property, and $44,800 for repairing homes.
“The sheer number of homes that have been destroyed and displaced, and need to either be rebuilt or repaired, that is not an effort that’s going to take a single summer construction season to occur,” he said.
Fisher emphasized that the goal for rebuilding and recovery is to stabilize communities as they continue ongoing discussions around long term resilience, and whether to relocate to higher ground.
Residents in Kwigillingok have voted to relocate, but Kipnuk is divided on whether to move to higher ground. The process is likely to take years.
Officials estimate more than 1,600 people were displaced by the storms. In Anchorage, almost 100 displaced residents moved into longer term housing around Feb. 1, according to a division update.
As of Feb. 4, there are 381 people from 73 households sheltering in hotels — a significant decrease from the peak of over 680 people in November.
Fisher said the state is working with partner organizations to continue to support families finding and settling into long term housing. “It’s a long, intensive process to get folks their deposits and get background checks for the landlords and furnish those apartments so they have utensils and furniture,” he said. “We’re continuing to do that, and we expect folks to stay in those apartments until we can clean up the communities and rebuild their homes and get them back home.”
Fisher said FEMA is providing rental assistance for families that are moving into apartments.
As of Feb. 4, FEMA has distributed $33.5 million in individual and household assistance, and $30.3 million in other needs assistance, which includes lost personal property, transportation, medical or moving costs, according to an agency update. FEMA has also awarded $3.19 million for housing assistance.
In the weeks ahead, lawmakers will vote on Gov. Dunleavy’s supplemental budget, which asks for $40 million in additional disaster relief funding for this year.
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