In the wake of an intense storm, Alaska Air National Guard Airmen evacuated more than 500 residents by C-17 Globemaster III aircraft this week as heavy storm surges flooded many villages in the state’s western region.
The remnants of Typhoon Halong hit Alaska’s western coast, leaving one dead and two people missing by Oct. 13, according to multiple news outlets. Alaska’s State Emergency Operation Center requested Air Guard personnel to support operations on Oct. 11 after Gov. Mike Dunleavy issued a disaster declaration two days earlier.
Air and Army National Guard personnel, along with “Alaska organized militia” members have been working to provide shelter, food and other supplies to homeless residents and offer air transport out of the affected area, Alaska Air National Guard Col. Christy Brewer, joint staff operations director, said Oct. 16 in a video statement.
“This is a very unique response; we have the entire Alaska organized militia that have responded eagerly and willingly to this response,” she said. “We have the Alaska National Guard, the Alaska State Defense Force and the Alaska Naval Militia. Our joint operation center is fully stood up, and it is all hands-on deck. Everybody is supporting and trying to help Alaskans in their time of need.”
While it’s still unclear how many Guard members are involved in the operation, Brewer said that more than “100 people that have responded and activated to this response out into the community, and we have several hundred more that are behind the scenes, doing hard work all the way down to the smallest unit level on the Army and the Air Guard side, getting people on state active duty.”
Since operations began Oct. 13, Air and Army Guard units have evacuated 572 typhoon victims, an Alaska Air Guard spokesperson said. Two UH-60 Black Hawks, an HH-60 medical evacuation helicopter, and a CH-47 Chinook helicopter from the Alaska Army National Guard evacuated residents from Kipnuk and other devastated communities to the city of Bethel, where a C-17 ferried those who were willing to Joint Base Elmendorf–Richardson in Anchorage.
“This is not a mandatory evacuation,” Brewer said. “We are helping anybody who needs to get out of the small communities, using our Army Guard helicopters to bring them to Bethel, and then from Bethel, anybody who is willing to get on a C-17 who wants to be evacuated, we’re going to help them get back to [better] conditions in Anchorage.”
For those who chose to stay in Bethel, the relief effort set up a shelter in the Army Guard armory to provide food, bathrooms, and sleeping areas for up to 150 displaced people, Brewer said, adding that the relief effort is delivering food to local churches that are also serving as temporary shelters.
Guard members and other volunteers are also helping to repair generators in impacted communities.
“Some of these communities have less than 72 hours’ worth of food and one to two days’ worth of fuel to power the generators,” she said. “We’ve also been sending Arctic tents we have out in Bethel for any additional support.”
The emergency response effort and C-17 flights are expected to continue through the weekend of Oct. 18-19, Brewer said.
“Future evacuations are going to be at the request of the incident commander,” Brewer said. “We’re working together with the state on a prioritized list of those communities that need the most support, and so we are going to continue operations as long as we need to to get people to safety.”
