Overview

• One of Alaska’s largest airlifts is underway from Kipnuk and Kwigillingok, with roughly 1,500–1,600 people in regional shelters and about 300 evacuees flown to Anchorage’s Alaska Airlines Center.
• Authorities confirm one death, identified as 67-year-old Ella Mae Kashatok, and report two people missing after homes were swept away by floodwaters.
• Preliminary assessments in Kipnuk count at least 121 homes destroyed, while runway cracks and downed power poles are complicating relief flights and repairs.
• Water levels rose about 1.8 meters above normal high tide as strong winds battered low-lying coastal communities along the Bering Sea.
• The U.S. Coast Guard and Alaska National Guard continue search-and-rescue with MH-60 Jayhawk helicopters, and advocates say a previously canceled $20 million EPA grant could have reduced some risks.