At least one person has died and two more are missing amid widespread flooding in Western Alaska, caused by the arrival of a remnant of Typhoon Halong. The storm brought with it a two metre high storm surge, a record for the region, which inundated the coastal communities of Kipnuk and Kwigillingok overnight between Saturday 11 and Sunday 12 October 2025. Hundreds of people were forced to flee the area as their homes were submerged, with the state launching its largest ever air-evacuation to air lift people to the safety of Anchorage, 800 km to the east.
The flooding has re-ignited grievances over the cancellation of a US$20 million grant from the Environmental Protection Agency to improve sea defences, and prevent climate change-driven coastal erosion which was leaving the villages exposed. The grant was approved by President Joe Biden in December 2024, but then rescinded by President Donald Trump in May of this year, as part of the Inflation Reduction Act. Whilst it is unlikely that sea defences would have been in place to protect the villages before the storm, the events have demonstrated the necessity of such projects, and left many community members feeling abandoned by the administration.
Ocean storms form due to heating of air over the sea in tropical zones. As the air is heated the the air pressure drops and the air rises, causing new air to rush in from outside the forming storm zone. If this zone is sufficiently large, then it will be influenced by the Coriolis Effect, which loosely speaking means the winds closer to the equator will be faster than those further away, causing the storm to rotate, clockwise in the northern hemisphere and anticlockwise in the southern hemisphere.
Despite the obvious danger of winds of this speed, which can physically blow people, and other large objects, away as well as damaging buildings and uprooting trees, the real danger from these storms comes from the flooding they bring. Each drop millibar drop in air-pressure leads to an approximate 1 cm rise in sea level, with big tropical storms capable of causing a storm surge of several meters. This is always accompanied by heavy rainfall, since warm air over the ocean leads to evaporation of sea water, which is then carried with the storm. These combined often lead to catastrophic flooding in areas hit by tropical storms.
See also...
