Alaska evacuees might not go home for at least 18 months

Damage to remote Alaska villages hammered by flooding last weekend is so extreme that many of the more than 2,000 people displaced won't be able to return to their homes for atleast 18 months, Gov. Mike Dunleavy said ina request to the White House for a major disaster declaration.

- By Mark THIESSEN AND GENE JOHNSON

SGT. MARY MILLER helps storm evacuees Thursday in Kwigillingok, Alaska. JOSEPH MOON Alaska National Guard

In one of the hardest hit villages, Kipnuk, an initial assessment showed that 121 homes —or90%— have been destroyed, Dunleavy wrote. In Kwigillingok, where three dozen homes floated away, more than one-third of the residences are uninhabitable.

The remnants of Typhoon Halong struck western Alaska with the ferocity of a Category 2 hurricane, Dunleavy said, sending a surge of high surf into the low-lying region. One person. was killed, two remain missing and rescue crews plucked dozens of people from their homes as they floated away.

Officials have been scrambling to airlift people from the inundated Alaska Native villages. More than 2,000 people across the region have taken shelter in schools in their villages or in larger communities in southwestern Alaska or have been evacuated by military planes to Anchorage, the state’s largest city.

Anchorage leaders said Friday that they expect as many as 1,600 evacuees. So far about 575 have been airlifted to the city by the Alaska National Guard and have been staying ata sports arena or a convention center. Additional flights were expected Saturday.