Alaska’s West Coast Just Took a Direct Hit. We Need to Talk About Climate, Infrastructure, and Resilience

Posted on October 29, 2025

Communities across the Yukon–Kuskokwim Delta are reeling after the remnants of Typhoon Halong slammed into Western Alaska October 12-15 with hurricane-force winds and a record storm surge. Fifteen communities in the region sustained severe damage. Homes in Kipnuk and Kwigillingok were hit hardest: over 90% of buildings in Kipnuk and roughly a third in Kwig are destroyed or uninhabitable. The summer season’s subsistence harvests were lost. At least one person is confirmed dead, and two remain missing. State and federal partners mounted one of the largest airlift evacuations in Alaska history, moving over 1,400 people into shelters in Bethel and Anchorage, bringing only a backpack and the clothes on their backs. 

Water levels in Kipnuk reached 6.6 feet above normal high tide, nearly two feet above the previous record, while winds topped 100 mph across parts of the Delta. With fuel hubs, power systems, and essential infrastructure and equipment compromised, the near-term humanitarian needs in the region are acute. Friends and neighbors nationwide activated to donate money and much-needed supplies to the relief effort. Please donate what you can.

AMCC is an ally and advocate for Alaska’s coastal and inland fishing communities. We do not speak for them. The communities devastated by this month’s storms are primarily indigenous, and we encourage you to seek out direct accounts and recommendations from community members and leaders. The voices and people of Western Alaska are strong, resilient, and perceptive. Please read a first-hand account of the storm from Jeron Joseph of Kwigillingok and his experience of the difficult transition to Anchorage. 

This event is not a one-and-done; rather, it reflects a clear pattern of increasingly severe storms and increased coastal erosion in a rapidly changing Bering and Arctic ecosystem. Warmer oceans are fueling more powerful extratropical cyclones, reduced sea ice is providing less buffer against coastal storms, and climate change is advancing at a rate three to four times faster in the Arctic than the global average.

What the data say—Alaska-specific signals of rapid change

• According to the National Snow and Ice Data Center, Arctic sea ice hit its annual minimum on September 10, 2025, at 4.60 million km², the 10th-lowest in the 47-year satellite record. The last 19 years include the 19 lowest minimums on record, leaving the North Pacific with near-record warm sea temperatures.

• Statewide warmth has been persistent this summer: July averaged 55.3°F (about +2.6°F vs. the long-term baseline), and August averaged 51.2°F (+1.7°F). Warm air and ocean conditions prime the region for stronger fall storms.

• The Arctic overall is warming about 4 times faster than the global average, with leading agencies warning this acceleration will continue, raising odds of extreme storms, coastal flooding, and rapid ice loss in the years ahead.

• Impacts from climate change are felt throughout the state, with Southeast Alaska expected to experience the largest increase in winter days above freezing in North America, transitioning from snow to rain-fed watershed systems, which significantly impacts hydrology. Increased landslide activity and glacial flooding due to protracted rain cycles further endanger communities and sensitive ecosystems. 

• Ocean warming has impacted seafood harvest statewide, with iconic species such as salmon, crab, and cod all affected in recent years. 

  
  

Why storms like Halong hit harder now

• Warmer water = more energy. Elevated Bering and North Pacific sea-surface temperatures allow post-tropical systems to retain strength as they recurve into Alaska. (Read Alaska climatologist Rick Thomen’s analysis here).

• Amplified Arctic warming shifts jet-stream behavior and favors persistent, high-impact patterns. That increases the likelihood that storms stall, stack, or arrive in quick succession during the open-water season as they did with Halong.

• Permafrost thaw and erosion weaken foundations, roads, airstrips, and fuel tank farms. So, when flooding arrives, damage multiplies. (Merbok’s 2022 post-storm surveys documented extensive shoreline loss and infrastructure impacts that mirror what we’re now hearing from Halong.)

  
  

What Western Alaska needs now

Immediate relief & safe shelter. Hundreds of evacuees, many from villages where most homes are damaged, need warm, safe housing, medical care, and support for relocating.

Rapid damage assessment & debris/fuel spill response. Flooding and wind have compromised fuel depots and critical utilities in multiple communities; swift spill response and safe power restoration are urgent.

Funding that matches the scale of risk. Federal and state resilience programs are essential, but must move faster and center community priorities, including relocation where protection is no longer viable.

From crisis to durable resilience. The Trump administration’s climate posture is head-in-the-sand at the very moment Western Alaska needs federal realism and speed. Since January, the White House has restarted U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, scrapped key methane and greenhouse-gas rules using the Congressional Review Act, and ordered agencies to prioritize fossil-fuel expansion—reversing the LNG export pause and fast-tracking new terminals. Agencies have simultaneously purged or downplayed climate information on federal websites and proposed deep cuts and censorship at NOAA that would weaken forecasting and coastal risk science—data Western Alaska communities rely on for storm warnings and rebuilding standards. That’s not leadership; it’s wishful thinking in the face of higher seas, stronger storms, and thawing ground.

Our priorities are clear and actionable: we must aim to protect people first and rebuild smarter. This involves elevating or relocating housing when necessary and strengthening power, water, and year-round evacuation sites with guidance from Indigenous leadership in the design process. 

We must fortify our working waterfronts by implementing nature-based and hybrid coastal defenses, resilient barge landings, and storm-resistant fuel farms. This will ensure that our fisheries infrastructure, including ice storage and small-boat harbors, can withstand increasingly intense fall storms. 

In areas where chronic erosion and surge make locations unsafe, we should fund community-led climate migration projects with predictable, multi-year funding instead of piecemeal grants. 

Investing in monitoring and early warning systems is also crucial. This includes coastal gauges, river sensors, and local networks that integrate Indigenous knowledge with scientific data to enhance surge forecasts, evacuation timing, and spill prevention.

Furthermore, we need to plan for cascading impacts. This includes requiring resilience audits for fuel, communications, clinics, and airstrips; pre-positioning modular power and water, as well as mobile communications every storm season; and tightening mutual aid agreements among hub communities to ensure rapid assistance when the next storm strikes.

What you can do

• Support trusted relief channels serving Y-K Delta communities affected by Halong. Help fuel recovery by donating to the Disaster Response Fund—created by Western Alaska communities and managed through the Alaska Community Foundation. Learn more and donate here.

  
  

• Urge elected officials to fund resilience planning and robust research to underpin thoughtful decision-making.

  • Contact Senator Lisa Murkowski

  • Contact Senator Dan Sullivan

  • Contact Representative Nick Begich

We’ve been warned. Now we have to deliver.

From Merbok in 2022 to Halong this month, the message is the same: Alaska’s fall storm window is getting longer and more punishing, and the coast is increasingly exposed without early-season ice. The science is clear: the Arctic is warming three to four times faster than the rest of the world, and our infrastructure standards, emergency playbooks, and funding systems must catch up.

AMCC’s primary role is to serve as an ally and staunch supporter of Alaska’s coastal communities and seafood harvesters. We will continue to amplify the needs and self-determination of our friends and neighbors in Alaska’s fish-dependent communities. As part of that commitment, we’re working on several projects that address urgent information needs related to climate change and community resilience. 

AMCC is working to fund an ambitious region-by-region assessment of fisheries-related infrastructure in Alaska. The project was included in Senator Murkowski’s FY26 list of Congressionally Directed Spending priorities. This comprehensive, updateable infrastructure catalog would not only capture what is currently in place, but also analyze what’s needed for true resilience in our fish-dependent communities. 

It is well known that those who interact most closely with the ecosystem are the best equipped to monitor and report on change. To better understand changing ocean temperatures, AMCC has partnered with the Ocean Data Network and Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers on the Oceanography on Deck project to deploy temperature sensors across pot, trawl, and longline vessels, enabling live data collection from the Bering Sea fishing grounds. This data will be displayed in publicly accessible temperature maps in the coming months. 

AMCC stands with the families and communities on the front lines. We’ll keep pushing for Fish-First, community-first investments that protect life and livelihoods, harden working waterfronts, and respect community decisions, whether that’s staying and strengthening in place, or moving together to safer ground.