Western

When writer Lani Hulse heard the news about Typhoon Halong, she was across the country in Hawaii, where she lives.

“I just, I couldn’t help with each video that I watched online — people posting about the disaster, and afterwards — I just could not just sit there,” Hulse recalled. “I was like, there’s something I can do.”

Hulse was in the middle of writing a novel, part of a journey to reconnect with her Yup’ik culture. The author, who spent periods of her upbringing in Bethel, has family roots in the Yukon Delta village of Kotlik, which suffered damage from the October storm. Her father was also a principal across schools in the region, including Kipnuk.

“I was like, wait, I could do something creative and connect with a nonprofit, and get something rolling, have something physical that’s positive and connects to my culture as well,” Hulse said.

Hulse began coordinating with the Alaska Community Foundation to host a fundraising sale of the children’s book she was inspired to write. It’s called “Aanaq? Am I Your Sunset?” and 50% of each sale goes directly to the Western Alaska Disaster Relief Fund to support families impacted by Typhoon Halong. The other 50%, Hulse said, will cover the cost of production and taxes involved.

The storybook was inspired by a moment Hulse experienced with her son, Ashton. At the end of a stressful day, Hulse said that the two went for a drive.

“During the drive, the most captivating sunset caught my attention and I paused. And I was like, ‘Oh my gosh.’ I was like, ‘Ashton, look at that sunset. It’s so beautiful,’ ” Hulse remembered. “And my son was quiet for a second, and he asked, ‘Am I your sunset?’ I lost my breath for a moment.”

Hulse said that the book came from this seed of connection and meaning between parent and child. The story follows the layout of a poem, an adult responding to a child asking the same question in a backdrop of Yup’ik culture.

“And then each page, it’s almost like a poem goes over like, ‘Yes, you are my sun. You are my moon.’ And there’s lots of culturally significant imagery in there as well, like eating salmonberries, tundra tea, as well as, like, fishing and Northern Lights,” Hulse said.

Hulse said that she hopes the book will find buyers among those looking to support relief efforts, but she also hopes copies find their ways into the hands of those affected by the typhoon.

The book features a journal section where families can record shared memories together.

“I can’t imagine what these families are going through right now, and I wanted to bring something positive to their life,” Hulse said. “The main part of this story is what matters most is family moments with your family, these sweet moments throughout your day.”

You can find a copy of “Aanaq? Am I Your Sunset?” at Barnes and Noble booksellers online.

The State of Alaska and the Federal Emergency Management Agency have extended their deadlines to apply for individual disaster assistance for those impacted by storms in Western Alaska, including Typhoon Halong.

State and federal officials are continuing to encourage residents to register for both state and federal assistance programs to maximize their potential benefits. The new deadline for applications is February 20, 2026.

“We know that there may be more people out there, and we want to give them this opportunity to register,” said Jeremy Zidek, a spokesperson for the Alaska Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.

Zidek urged residents to apply for both assistance programs if they have experienced any level of storm damage. He said registrations can be updated once they have been filed.

“We always say that if people are unsure about their damages or unsure if they want to apply, to just go ahead and apply,” he said. “They can always amend their application at a later date. But after those deadlines, it becomes very difficult for us to register people, so we really urge anyone that had damage, even if it was a little bit of damage, to apply and go through the process.”

The state has received 1,920 aid applications and FEMA has received 1,630 applications for assistance as of Dec. 10. The programs provide relief for damage to homes, damage to essential personal property and medical, dental or funeral needs directly related to the disaster. State disaster aid also includes assistance for damage to subsistence camps. The Small Business Administration is also providing low-interest loans, including up to $100,000 for repairs to subsistence camps.

The state and FEMA have distributed over $41 million in disaster assistance as of Nov. 25, and have visited 43 communities.

An estimated 1,160 residents evacuated from Western Alaska following Typhoon Halong, with dozens of communities sustaining damage across the region.

Since the evacuations, 678 residents have been staying in hotels in Anchorage. The first group of families began moving into longer term housing last week, according to a state update. The state’s emergency management division is working with local property owners and non-profit partners to locate apartments and housing units throughout Anchorage for long-term housing for storm displaced residents.

Officials also set a Dec. 15 deadline for owners to claim pets. Over 200 dogs were evacuated from Western Alaska after the storms, and 21 dogs remain unclaimed. Pet owners who have not yet claimed their dogs  can search for them at a website created by volunteers.

Last week, members of the body that oversees federal fisheries off Alaska’s coast recommended keeping next year’s catch limits for the sprawling Bering Sea pollock fishery about the same as this year.

Managing the nation’s largest commercial fishery is never simple, but North Pacific Fishery Management Council member Anne Vanderhoeven said during the meeting that this year had unprecedented challenges.

“Because of the lapse in federal funding and the subsequent government shutdown, updated stock assessments are not available,” she said.

Without those assessments, the council had to rely on older data and partial updates.

Fisheries biologist Diana Stram runs the groundfish plan team, which presents annual reports to the council. She says the team had to cancel its meeting last month when the federal government shut down for over six weeks.

And that meant the organization recommending catch limits could be doing it without the most recent information.

“We’re not able to get new stock assessments from our federal authors because they were on furlough and did not have the time to complete those new assessments,” she told the council last week. “We don’t have a groundfish plan team report as a result.”

It’s the latest hurdle for federal fisheries managers since the start of President Trump’s second term. Layoffs at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Alaska Fisheries Science Center started earlier this year. Many of those workers help with surveys that inform how fisheries should open. The credit cards used to purchase supplies for summer research trips were frozen just as the boats were gearing up. And the council itself saw dramatic budget reductions, leading to its last meeting being moved online.

Still, at the council meeting this month, NOAA scientists emphasized that last year’s assessment models were strong and built on decades of survey work. They told the council the projections from last year were reliable enough to guide 2026 limits.

Scientists and council members said that some quotas could have increased if this year’s data was included.

Despite the disruptions, council members said the process held together well enough to set this year’s recommendations. But they acknowledged that Alaska’s largest fishery is increasingly vulnerable to forces outside the water.

The Alaska State Troopers are returning to television with a new show set to air in January. The self-titled documentary series follows troopers responding to calls across the state, including cities in the interior and villages in rural Alaska.

Spokesperson for the troopers, Austin McDaniel, said the State of Alaska won’t be compensated for participating in the show, and instead views it as a recruiting tool. He said bringing the show back was also in response to requests to station more troopers in underserved communities.

“Many communities, especially in rural Alaska, are asking us to hire more state troopers,” McDaniel said. “To hire more state troopers we have to show people what state troopers do.”

McDaniel said the old series that began airing in 2009 drummed up thousands of job applications for the state-run police force each year. He said that number has dwindled since the show ended in 2015.

“Today, we receive hundreds [of applications]. Around 1% are successful in making it to become a state trooper,” McDaniel said. “We’re hoping to increase the number of qualified applicants that are interested in becoming state troopers.”

KNOM reported in September that at least one trooper was spotted filming during a flight between Unalakleet and Nome.

McDaniel said troopers were given a choice to participate in the show. He also said the production company behind the show, Anusia Films, followed an “in-depth process” to get consent from Alaskans featured in the series.

According to a press release from the network airing the show, A&E, the series will include “multi-agency criminal takedowns” and “life-saving search and rescue missions.” McDaniel said the hope is to give Alaskans a better understanding of how troopers spend their days.

“We hope Alaskans will see that and it will be a point of pride for the work that their law enforcement officers do to keep them safe every day,” McDaniel said.

The new season of “Alaska State Troopers” begins airing on A&E on January 7, 2026. Older seasons of the show will also be available on-demand through the A&E app.

Officials with the Alaska Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management announced a reduction of some state emergency response operations on Friday, and a transition from a response to a recovery phase following the Western Alaska storms as winter sets in.

Emergency personnel with the Alaska Organized Militia, the Alaska Division of Forestry and Fire Prevention and veteran-led volunteer organization Team Rubicon are ending their missions and departing the region this week. Their work for the season should be complete by Nov. 26, according to a division update.

“Some aspects of the recovery operation might look different, but the support for impacted individuals and communities will continue,” said Bryan Fisher, director of the Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management in a prepared statement.

He thanked the disaster crews for their service. “The work to get emergency repair personnel, supplies, and equipment to communities and repair homes has been nothing short of amazing,” he said.

The reduction in personnel was expected as winter weather and freezing temperatures set in, said Jeremy Zidek, spokesperson for the State Emergency Operations Center, which is coordinating state, federal, tribal and local partners in the storm disaster response effort.

“We knew when this disaster happened, back on October 8, that we didn’t have a lot of time before winter was going to set in,” Zidek said on Monday. “Here in Alaska, we have two seasons: we have winter and we have construction season. And the ability to work during the winter in these far flung areas that are experiencing below freezing temperatures is very challenging.”

“So we knew this time would come where we would have to kind of cease some of this emergency response work,” he added. “And really focus on supporting the people that couldn’t return home, and making a plan, longer term, to make repairs when conditions are more favorable.”

The Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities will continue to work on critical infrastructure projects, Zidek said, as well as coordinate with local residents in impacted communities and regional partners like the Association of Village Council Presidents, the tribal coalition leading storm response efforts on the west coast, to continue work in villages as weather allows.

“A lot of work is still going to continue, particularly on infrastructure,” he said. “And there are going to be local crews that can take better advantage of weather windows, both within communities and out of Bethel. But for the most part, we’re going to focus on repairing critical infrastructure and providing services to people that have been displaced.”

The devastating October storms in Western Alaska prompted the largest emergency disaster response in state history. The remnants of Typhoon Halong killed one person, impacted more than 50 communities, destroyed over 200 homes, damaged thousands of structures, and displaced an estimated 1,600 residents across the state, according to local reporting from KYUK.

Zidek emphasized that communities were impacted at different degrees, and the coordinated response from a wide variety of federal, state, tribal and community organization partners will continue to support communities as needed.

Since the Trump administration approved a federal disaster declaration on Oct 22, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has distributed $17.9 million in assistance, under its individual and household assistance programs, as of Sunday, an agency spokesperson, Alberto Pilot said by email on Monday.

Pilot said the federal agency has dispersed over $172,000 in housing assistance funds and $17.7 million in “other needs” assistance, which can include disaster unemployment assistance, legal services and crisis counseling. FEMA has also dispersed over $1 million to the state for “expedited public assistance,” he said.

The Dunleavy administration has requested a 100 percent cost share covered by FEMA for the storm disaster, but that request is “currently under review,” a FEMA spokesperson confirmed on Monday.

Zidek noted that the state has paused its distribution of disaster assistance to allow FEMA disaster funds to be dispersed first. He said while the programs provide different kinds of support — for example, the state will cover funding repairs to subsistence fishing camps — the relief funding cannot be duplicated on the same projects, like for home repair work. If that occurs, the state will seek repayment from residents or disqualify them from future benefits, according to a division update.

Storm survivors are still encouraged to apply for state disaster assistance and FEMA disaster assistance to cover different costs as the recovery effort continues. Additional assistance is offered by the American Red Cross.

There are currently 600 storm evacuees staying in non-congregate shelters, like hotels, and the process of transitioning to longer term housing is ongoing, Zidek said.

“Our goal is to get as many people as possible into some type of temporary housing by Christmas,” he said. “It’s kind of a lofty goal. We might not be able to get everyone in there, but we want to move a large number of people in non-congregate shelters to something that will be more longer term and more comfortable.”

The Alaska National Guard will largely depart the region and return home by Tuesday, a spokesperson said, except for one UH-60L Black Hawk helicopter air crew stationed in Bethel, which will remain ready to respond at the request of state emergency officials.

As of Monday, the Alaska National Guard reported its service members have assisted 18 communities in the storm disaster relief effort in what officials say is the largest off-the-road-system mobilization in Alaska history.

National Guard service members evacuated 1,160 residents from the region and assisted with resupply efforts, delivering 350,000 pounds of cargo and supplies to coastal villages and logging 364 flight hours. They transported emergency personnel throughout the region, and service members also cleared miles of boardwalks, removed tons of debris, assessed almost 500 homes and secured or moved 94 caskets displaced by the storm.

Last week marked one month since the remnants of Typhoon Halong devastated communities in Western Alaska with high winds and flooding.

The scale of the destruction in the remote, isolated region is still only starting to emerge.

As of Thursday, the state Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management reported that 471 homes sustained major damage. Another 208 were destroyed. Among the 3,472 homes surveyed across the affected area, only about a quarter made it through the storm undamaged.

The storm killed one person and left two more missing.

The Association of Village Council Presidents, a regional tribal government consortium, reported that more than 50 communities saw impacts from the storm, with more than a dozen reporting serious damage.

The damage, especially in the villages of Kipnuk and Kwigillingok, led residents to evacuate in what the Alaska National Guard called the largest airlift in the state’s history. After rescuing 51 people in the storm’s immediate aftermath, first responders evacuated nearly the entire population of Kipnuk and Kwigillingok. More than 500 people are sheltering in hotels, and their long-term future remains in question.

Kipnuk

In Kipnuk, only the school and a handful of houses made it through the record flood in good shape. The vast majority of structures were damaged or destroyed — some 90%, according to the state Department of Transportation and Public Facilities.

James Paul is one of a small group of locals remaining in Kipnuk and working on the immense task of rebuilding. There have been some small wins, he said — for one thing, the local school, still serving as a hub for the relief effort, is also now connected to village electricity. Some street lights are even on.

“They have been making good progress every day,” he said in a phone interview earlier this month.

But there’s a lot left to do. The community’s water system is still offline, and most homes don’t have power.

Meanwhile, Paul said, aid is surging in. Cargo planes drop off heavy equipment and building supplies.

“Every agency and everybody that comes out here, I think has been really helpful,” he said. “They want to help, and I can’t say enough (about) all the help we’re getting.”

A staggering amount of aid has been flowing to the region from governments, nonprofits and the private sector.

But it likely won’t be enough for large numbers of residents to return this winter. Paul said his future is uncertain.

“I’m not sure about that,” he said. “I want to keep working as long as I can stay here.”

But another resident, Benjamin Kugtsun, said he had no plans to leave — at least, as long as they keep making progress.

“As long as we’ve got power from our power plant and some lights that can power up how we’ve been living, we’re not going to leave,” he said. “We’re going to stay here and work on Kipnuk — rebuilding Kipnuk.”

Kwigillingok

In another village devastated by the storm, Kwigillingok Tribal Resilience Coordinator Dustin Evon said there’s just too much damage.

“We feel like it’s not going to be habitable through the winter,” he said.

Locals and aid workers are keeping busy working to restore the homes that can be saved, Evon said, lifting homes back onto their foundations, replacing insulation soaked by the flood, restoring water and power and so on.

But once the sun goes down, he said, Kwig feels like a ghost town.

“It feels empty, and it’s not as lively as it used to be before the storm,” he said.

For now, the focus is on restoring homes in place, but the long-term future for the village is miles away. The tribe’s members voted in the weeks after the storm to officially relocate about 20 to 25 miles northeast to higher ground, Evon said.

“A lot have said that if a complete rebuild happens in Kwig, many don’t feel safe coming back,” Evon said.

But financing that relocation, which could cost tens or hundreds of millions of dollars, will be a challenge.

Bryan Fisher, director of the Alaska Division of Homeland Security & Emergency Management, said finding funding for relocation will take time. At a town hall meeting in Anchorage this week, he said that the emergency funding the communities have access to now can be used for rebuilding homes and infrastructure and making them more resilient. The relocation work will have to be addressed with different types of funding later on, he said.

“The programs that we have to respond and recover from Typhoon Halong in this disaster will not relocate the communities. They’re intended to repair and replace damaged infrastructure, homes, personal property, subsistence, gear and equipment from the storm,” he said. ” However, we will be working with all of the agencies and the councils to talk about what we can do to support your desire — if you have it — to relocate in the longer term.”

Fisher said he hoped the currently available aid funding would at least buy communities time.

Napakiak

The village of Napakiak was already working on relocation to a nearby bluff when Halong hit — what the local tribe calls a “managed retreat” from the eroding banks of the Kuskokwim River. And Walter Nelson, who coordinates that effort, said the vast majority of homes in Napakiak were flooded during Halong. Approximately a dozen residents have yet to return to their homes, he said.

“I’m 65 years old. I’ve never seen anything like this,” he said. “I’ve talked to our eldest elder. He’s never seen anything like this, the aftermath of Halong.”

Still, Nelson said he’s grateful the damage in Napakiak was not as severe as it was in Kipnuk and Kwigillingok. For now, crews are working to dry out flooded homes, replace insulation and restore heat, he said.

Nelson said the flood underscores just how urgent relocation is — and not just for his village.

“We can’t predict Mother Nature, and we can’t challenge her,” he said.

Tuntutuliak

Around 30 miles southwest, in Tuntutuliak, the most severe damage came in the low-lying part of town along the banks of Qinaq River. Twenty-six people evacuated, at least a dozen homes were knocked from their foundations, and large sections of boardwalk in the roadless community were ripped away by the storm surge. Elder Henry Lupie said that nearly all of the community’s traditional steam baths were flooded or displaced.

“We need steam house(s). We don’t have bath and showers readily available in homes,” Lupie said.

Lupie said most of the oil-fired heaters in the community have been repaired or replaced. He said the volunteer and agency-led efforts to tear out and replace wet insulation have made multiple homes livable through the winter.

Floodwaters destroyed numerous freezers full of subsistence foods, forcing residents to shift to winter harvests — ice fishing for lush and setting black fish traps, Lupie said. He said his son was among the first residents to harvest a moose under an emergency hunt opened by the state in early November, and that others are waiting for thicker ice to do the same.

“We’re just now cutting it up and passing it to the ones down in the lower village … and the ones from Kwigillingok, evacuees,” Lupie said.

Quinhagak

Further south, the Kuskokwim Bay community of Quinhagak dodged the worst effects of the storm.

“We are fortunate that our community was not devastated and acknowledge that the communities across the bay have a lot more needs than we do,” Mayor Jerilyn Kelly wrote by email.

Nevertheless, Quinhagak saw erosion of as much as 60 feet along miles of beach. The storm surge brought the shoreline closer to the community’s already threatened sewage lagoon. It also destroyed unexcavated portions of a nearby archaeological site, the largest known precontact Yup’ik site in Alaska.

Kelly said that 10 homes were damaged by the storm, and that multiple fish camps, drying racks, smokehouses, and boats were washed away by floodwaters. She said the community’s water intake line is still damaged and will need to be replaced after break-up.

Nightmute

Far to the northwest, at least 19 people evacuated after floodwaters inundated homes in the Nelson Island community of Nightmute, roughly 10 miles up the Toksook River, according to the National Guard. The flooding made the riverside community appear as if it were in the middle of the ocean, said Tribal Administrator Clement George.

A month later, rebuilding work is still underway, he said.

“We’re rebuilding houses, boardwalks are mostly rebuilt, repaired … I think there’s three homes to be demolished,” George said.

George said a contractor has finished constructing a temporary landfill on higher ground after the storm pushed water into the community’s landfill and sewage lagoon.

George said it’s the worst disaster he’s ever experienced. The nearby community of Toksook Bay saw the highest wind gust ever measured on Nelson Island, at 100 miles per hour. George said the level of erosion around Nightmute stands out.

“Some of the tundra is folded and the small creeks, they’re bigger than before,” George said.

At the nearby coastal subsistence camp of Umkumiut, dozens of structures were all but wiped out. The site holds deep cultural importance for many on Nelson Island, and according to George, provides as much as 75% of Nightmute’s subsistence needs.