Hundreds airlifted from remote Alaskan towns after typhoon

Alaska emergency officials, National Guard, and militia members on Wednesday worked to evacuate hundreds of coastal villagers displaced by severe flooding. The crisis arose after remnants of Typhoon Halong battered the state’s west coast last weekend. The operation was one of the state’s largest-scale airlifts in recent history, according to a National Guard release.

The storm left many homes too damaged to be reoccupied, even with emergency repairs, state emergency officials said. Several communities’ infrastructure was compromised. Crews began airlifting residents of the tiny villages of Kipnuk and Kwigillingok to shelters in the Bethel regional hub on Tuesday, the National Guard said. But as evacuations continued Wednesday, Bethel shelters were almost full, authorities said.

Helicopter crews planned to pull more people from the devastated villages on Wednesday, while other aircraft brought about 300 evacuees from Bethel to Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in faraway Anchorage. They would be forwarded to shelters in Anchorage, the National Guard said.

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