US EditionAn Uncommon Program Helps Children Displaced by Flooding that Devastated Alaska Villages
College Gate Elementary provides cultural, educational, and emotional support to 70 displaced Yup'ik students from Kipnuk and Kwigillingok after a storm destroyed over 650 homes, officials said.
- This past week, College Gate Elementary in Anchorage enrolled 71 evacuated children in its Yup'ik immersion program to preserve language and routine.
- During the mid-October storm, the remnants of Typhoon Halong inundated Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta communities, prompting evacuations of more than 1,600 people, with about 650 lodged in Anchorage and over 90% of Kipnuk's structures destroyed.
- After last month's evacuations, staff organized cultural activities to help acclimate evacuees, with students receiving Yup'ik literacy and language instruction for half the day in the K-12 Yup'ik immersion program added about nine years ago, including the `seal hop` activity.
- Children are finding familiarity in immersion classes as displaced children use Yup'ik to communicate, and Principal Darrell Berntsen greeted evacuees at the Red Cross shelter inviting families to enroll.
- Soon, harsh winter conditions may force relief workers to pause, leaving some families unable to return and prompting relocation debates that could take years with state support.
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30 Articles
Native villages face uncertain future after typhoon
KWIGILLINGOK, Alaska — Darrel John watched the final evacuees depart his village on the western coast of Alaska in helicopters and small planes and walked home, avoiding the debris piled on the boardwalks over the swampy land.
Associated Press News
An uncommon program helps children displaced by flooding that devastated Alaska villages
An immersion program that helps preserve an Alaska Native language has been a boon to children displaced by last month's severe flooding in western Alaska.
Native Alaska villages were already on the front lines of climate change. Then a typhoon hit.
Eric Phillip, the boardwalk foreman for Kongiganak, Alaska, surveys infrastructure damage caused by Typhoon Halong, Oct. 18, 2025. The Alaska Organized Militia continues coordinated response operations in support of the State Emergency Operation Center following the 2025 West Coast Storm as the mission focus, pursuant to Governor Dunleavy’s declaration of disaster, shifts from lifesaving to life sustainment and stabilization of communities and s…
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