13/10/2025
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13/10/2025
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WASHINGTON, Oct 13, (AP): A nor’easter churned its way up the East Coast on Sunday, washing out roads and prompting air travel delays as heavily populated areas of the Northeast experienced excessive rain, lashing winds and coastal flooding. Across the continent in western Alaska, the remnants of Typhoon Halong brought hurricane-force winds and catastrophic flooding to coastal communities, pushing entire houses off their foundations.
Rescue aircraft were sent to the tiny Alaskan villages of Kipnuk and Kwigillingok, where there were reports of up to 20 people possibly unaccounted for, said Jeremy Zidek, spokesperson for the state Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management. “We have received reports that people’s homes have floated away and that people were potentially in those homes,” Zidek told The Associated Press.
At least eight homes were swept away in Kipnuk and at least four homes were swept away in nearby Kwigillingok, Zidek said.
He said Sunday evening that search efforts were continuing, and that they were still trying to determine exactly how many people hadn’t been accounted for. The area is among one of the most isolated in the U.S., where some communities have few roads and residents use boardwalks, boats and snowmobiles to get around, Zidek said.
Roads and boardwalks were inundated and power lines were damaged in Bethel, Napaskiak, Napakiak, and other Yukon-Kuskokwim communities. Crews worked to clear the airport runway in Bethel, which was littered with debris from high winds. According to the nonprofit Coastal Villages Region Fund, nearly 600 people in Kipnuk were taking shelter at a local school while around 300 people in Kwigillingok were sheltering in a school there. “Every effort will be made to help those hit by this storm. Help is on the way,” Gov. Mike Dunleavy said in a statement.
