U.S. fighter jets were scrambled Thursday to intercept multiple Russian bombers, fighter jets and a spy plane that were spotted flying off the coast of Alaska, U.S. authorities said.
Two Russian Tu-95s bombers, two Su-35s fighter planes and an A-50 spy plane were detected in the Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zone, the North American Aerospace Defense Command reported in a statement.
NORAD said it launched two F-16s, two F-35s and four KC-135s to escort the Russian aircraft until they had departed the Alaskan ADIZ.
The Russian aircraft did not enter U.S. or Canadian airspace, said NORAD, which described Russia’s activity in the Alaskan ADIZ as a regular occurrence that was not considered a threat.
The Alaskan ADIZ is a stretch of international airspace that begins where U.S. and Canadian sovereign airspace ends. According to NORAD, it is a “defined stretch of international airspace that requires the ready identification of all aircraft in the interest of national security.”
A screen grab from a video shows Russian Tu-95 bomber conducting a planned flight lasting more than 11 hours over neutral waters of the Sea of Japan on Jan. 21, 2026.
Russian Defense Ministry/Anadolu via Getty Images
In September 2025, the U.S. also scrambled fighter jets to intercept Russian Tu-95s and Su-35s in the Alaskan ADIZ. And last August, NORAD intercepted a Russian IL-20 COOT, a Cold War-era reconnaissance aircraft, four times in one week.
In September 2024, a 15-second video posted by NORAD showed a Russian fighter jet flying just feet away from a NORAD aircraft in the Alaskan ADIZ.
In July 2024, both Russian and Chinese bombers were intercepted by the U.S. after entering the Alaskan ADIZ. At the time, a U.S. defense official told CBS News this marked the first time that Russian and Chinese aircraft had ever jointly entered the Alaska ADIZ, and the first time Chinese H-6 bombers had encroached off Alaska.
Anchorage city leaders are proposing a one-time tax increase to raise millions of dollars for the Anchorage School District, which faces an $83 million budget shortfall.
Mayor Suzanne LaFrance said she’s requesting the Assembly set aside a slate of revenue proposals, including her office’s proposed 3% sales tax, in order to focus on the $12 million education tax levy.
“Over the last several months, we have been having a vital conversation around the municipality’s long-term fiscal health and the need to diversify our revenue, but the crisis facing our schools is too urgent to wait,” LaFrance said at a news conference Monday morning.
If approved by the Assembly, the tax would go on the April city ballot. If voters pass the tax, city officials say Anchorage property owners should expect an increase of $27.40 per $100,000 of assessed property tax value.
ASD Superintendent Jharrett Bryantt said, over the past decade, inflation has made budgeting difficult for the district, which has seen declining enrollment and a large exodus of teachers. The state Legislature approved an increase to per-student funding last year, even overriding a veto from Gov. Mike Dunleavy to keep the funding intact, but Bryantt said it doesn’t fully fill the gap.
“While the $700 increase did provide relief, it did not fully restore what schools have lost,” Bryantt said. “As a result, even though we’re in the process of making significant reductions outside of the classroom, deeper than we’ve cut in many, many years, ASD is still facing difficult choices for the ’26-’27 budget.”
State law puts a cap on how much a city can tax for education, and Anchorage typically taxes to that limit. However, the per-student funding increase at the state level allows Anchorage officials to increase the amount the city taxes for education, Bryantt said.
He said the money from the tax levy would go entirely to addressing high class sizes.
“If voters approve this levy, I will commit to directing these dollars to teaching positions and essential student services,” Bryantt said. “Manageable class sizes are at the top of the list of what our parents desire for their children.”
The proposed tax levy comes at the expense of LaFrance’s proposal for a 3% sales tax, which she initially wanted the Assembly to put on the spring ballot. Her administration has said the city faces a fiscal cliff, and funding from the sales tax would’ve gone toward child care, housing, public safety, capital projects and property tax relief.
LaFrance said the tax levy is a more immediate solution to support another struggling city service: education.
“We believe it is too much to have two revenue measures on the ballot,” LaFrance said. “A sales tax proposal won’t generate revenue for one and a half to two years or so, whereas the levy will be immediate.”
Though LaFrance is setting aside her sales tax proposal, for now, she said the city still faces a tough financial future.
“We are still approaching the fiscal cliff, and the municipality faces budget gaps in the next few years,” LaFrance said. “We will be presenting scenarios for potential service cuts.”
Assembly members plan to introduce the tax levy proposal during their meeting Tuesday night, said Vice Chair Anna Brawley. Brawley is one of the co-sponsors of the tax levy, along with members Erin Baldwin Day and Felix Rivera. In order to put the tax on the April ballot, eight members would need to approve it by Jan. 27. Brawley also introduced a 2% increase to the city’s bed tax, but she said she’s willing to set her proposal and the mayor’s sales tax proposal aside to focus on education funding.
“I know this conversation is not over, and so for my part, I am happy to set aside the revenue measure for the time being,” Brawley said. “But I will work with my colleagues, with the mayor, and with others in the community, to really continue that conversation and bring forward, you know, what kind of city do we want to be in the future.”
Bryantt said the tax levy won’t fully address the district’s budget shortfall, but he’s hopeful it will hold the district over while state leaders work on a long-term budget solution.
“We do anticipate that there will be a change in state leadership as we look ahead towards the governor’s race, and we are yearning for a long-range fiscal vision and fiscal plan for the state and specifically for education,” Bryantt said.
Anchorage’s municipal election is scheduled for April 7.
___ This story was originally published by Alaska Public Media and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Snow-capped mountains, narrow fjords and calving glaciers.
Alaska is known for its beautiful coastline, where ships sail past its colourful, waterside houses and the vast Tongass National Forest.
But for blind traveller Sassy Wyatt, her experience of a cruise around the Pacific Ocean centres around sounds and feelings rather than sights.
‘The first time I heard a whale spout, it silenced an entire catamaran.
‘I couldn’t see the whales rising, but I didn’t need to; the sound was enough. The hush that followed said everything,’ Sassy told The Independent.
‘It turns out, not everything needs to be seen to be felt.’
On a Princess Cruises tour with her husband, Grant, Sassy said staff introduced themselves by name, a small gesture that helped her familiarise herself with who was speaking without seeing them.
And this wasn’t the only accessibility feature Sassy recalled.
Alaska is known for its beautiful coastline, where ships sail past its colourful, waterside houses and the vast Tongass National Forest
On a Princess Cruises tour with her husband, Grant, Sassy said staff introduced themselves by name, a small gesture that helped her familiarise herself with who was speaking without seeing them
She noted that the cabin steward remembered where Sassy left things and the menus were read aloud, patiently and in full.
‘Accessibility wasn’t treated like an awkward afterthought. It was built into the design: braille and tactile numbers outside every cabin, audio announcements in lifts, braille signage where you’d want it,’ she said.
Sassy even took part in a high-wire course and while she couldn’t see the view, she felt it and was able to build the picture in her mind.
Whale watching for Sassy was all about the sound and atmosphere.
She said: ‘Or guide Matt’s commentary painted pictures I could follow: the history of the land, the rhythms of the sea, the anticipation of a sighting.
‘And when the humpback whales finally breached, it was the collective gasp of the passengers, the sudden spray, the quiet awe that stayed with me.’
It comes as a British couple sold everything to travel the world with their disabled son.
The pair had struggled with finding appropriate groups and educational settings for their son that supported his specialist needs.
Whale watching for Sassy was all about the sound and atmosphere
But now their kids are ‘learning Vietnamese’, ‘bathing elephants’, ‘climbing waterfalls’ and ‘sleeping in the jungle’.
So Dan, 32, and Lou, 31, sold their home in Congleton, Cheshire, and took their children out of school to take a one-way flight to Asia this summer.
The couple booked a one-way flight to Bangkok, stayed for a month there before moving to Chiang Mai and Phuket, and are now in Penang in Malaysia.
The family is now exploring Southeast Asia – and Dan and Lou have been documenting their travels on social media.
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Blind traveller reveals what life is like for her on board a Pacific cruise
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A former Alaska Airlines pilot who tried to cut the engines of a passenger flight in 2023 while riding off-duty in the cockpit will serve no additional prison time, a federal judge ruled Monday.
U.S. District Court Judge Amy Baggio sentenced Emerson to time served and supervised release for three years a hearing in Portland, Oregon. Federal prosecutors had asked for one year in prison, while his attorneys had sought probation.
“Pilots are not perfect. They are human,” she said. “They are people and all people need help sometimes.”
Emerson was subdued by the flight crew after trying to cut the engines of a Horizon Air flight from Everett, Washington, to San Francisco on Oct. 22, 2023, while he was riding in an extra seat in the cockpit. The plane was diverted to Portland, where it landed safely with more than 80 people on board.
After his arrest, Emerson told police he was despondent over a friend’s recent death, had taken psychedelic mushrooms about two days earlier, and hadn’t slept in over 40 hours. He has said he believed he was dreaming at the time and that he was trying to wake himself up by grabbing two red handles that would have activated the plane’s fire suppression system and cut off fuel to its engines.
Before Baggio announced the sentence, Emerson spoke and said he regretted the harm he caused to society.
“I’m not a victim. I am here as a direct result of my actions,” he told the court. “I can tell you that this very tragic event has forced me to grow as an individual.”
He hugged his attorneys and shared a tearful embrace with his wife after the judge announced she was releasing him, saying his story “offers a cautionary tale worth telling beyond the confines of this case.”
Multiple people spoke on Emerson’s behalf at the hearing, including his wife, Sarah Stretch, who told the judge how the incident had impacted their family.
“I am so sorry for those that it’s impacted as much as it has. But I am extremely proud to be here with this man today, because the growth that he has had from this terrible experience has not only helped him, but benefited all that surround him,” she said through tears. “I just hope people realize that it’s not necessarily the mistake itself but how you respond to it. He has responded with courage, strength and demonstration of extreme resiliency.”
Joseph Emerson had pleaded guilty or no-contest to all charges against him in September as part of agreements with state and federal prosecutors.
Emerson, of Pleasant Hill, California, was charged in federal court with interfering with a flight crew. A state indictment in Oregon separately charged him with 83 counts of endangering another person and one count of endangering an aircraft. He was released from custody pending trial in December 2023, with requirements that he undergo mental health services, stay off drugs and alcohol, and keep away from aircraft.
A state court sentenced him to 50 days in jail, with credit for time served, plus five years of probation, 664 hours of community service — eight hours for each person he endangered — and over $60,000 in restitution, nearly all of it to Alaska Air Group.
Half of his community service can be performed at the pilot health nonprofit Emerson founded after his arrest. He must also undergo assessments for drug and alcohol and mental health treatment, refrain from using any unprescribed drugs, and keep at least 25 feet (7.6 meters) away from operable aircraft unless he has permission from his probation officer.
In their sentencing memo asking for one year in prison, federal prosecutors wrote: “It was only through the heroic actions of the flight crew, who were able to physically restrain the defendant and restore normal operations of the aircraft, that no lives were lost that day.”
In a sentencing memo, his attorneys requested probation with credit for time served over prison or home detention, arguing that the “robust” state prosecution “resulted in substantial punishment.”
In state court in September, Emerson said he was grateful to the flight crew for restraining him and saving his life, along with those of everyone else on board. He called it “the greatest gift I ever got,” even though he lost his career and wound up in jail, because it forced him to confront his mental health challenges and reliance on alcohol.
“This difficult journey has made me a better father, a better husband, a better member of my community,” he said.
The airline has said that other members of the flight crew had not observed signs of impairment that would have barred Emerson from the cockpit.
The averted disaster renewed attention on cockpit safety and the mental fitness of those allowed in them.
If you have upcoming travel plans anytime soon, you might notice fewer options on the airport’s departure board.
Airlines are scaling back flights at dozens of major U.S. airports to ease the pressure on air traffic controllers, who have been working unpaid and under intense strain during the ongoing government shutdown.
The Federal Aviation Administration says the decision is necessary to keep travelers safe. Many controllers have been putting in long hours and mandatory overtime while lawmakers are at a standstill over how to reopen the government.
Major hubs like New York, Los Angeles and Chicago are among those affected, and the ripple effects could mean more cancellations, longer delays and fuller flights for travelers across the country. The cutbacks will impact hundreds if not thousands of flights daily.
Here’s what to know about the FAA’s order — and what you can do if your plans are disrupted:
Is my airport on the list?
There’s a good chance it is. The list spans more than two dozen states.
It includes the country’s busiest airport — Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Georgia — and the main airports in Boston, Denver, Honolulu, Las Vegas, Miami, San Francisco and Salt Lake City.
Multiple airports will be impacted in some metropolitan hubs, including New York, Houston, Chicago and Washington.
How long will this go on?
It’s hard to say. Even if the shutdown ends soon, the FAA has said it would not lift the flight restrictions until staffing at airport towers and regional air traffic centers makes it safe to do so.
“It’s going to take time to work through this,” said Michael Johnson, president of Ensemble Travel, an association of travel agencies in the U.S. and Canada.
That’s why, he said, it’s important to plan ahead — whether you’ve already booked flights or you’re just starting to make holiday travel plans.
Know before you go
Airlines say they will let their customers know if their flight is called off.
Still, it doesn’t hurt to check your airline’s app or a flight-tracking site for updates before you leave for the airport. It’s better to be stuck at home or in a hotel than stranded in a terminal.
My flight was canceled. Now what?
“Take a deep breath. Don’t panic,” Johnson said. “There are options available. They may not be ideal, and they may be inconvenient, but you have options.”
If you’re already at the airport, it’s time to get in line to speak to a customer service representative. While you’re waiting, you can call or go online to connect to the airline’s reservations staff. It can also help to reach out on the social platform X because airlines might respond quickly there.
Now might also be the time to consider if it makes sense to travel by train, car or bus instead.
Kyle Potter, executive editor of Thrifty Traveler, said the shutdown is different from when a single airline is having problems and travelers can just pick another carrier.
“The longer the shutdown drags on, it’s unlikely that there will be one airline running on time if the rest of the them are failing,” Potter said.
Can I get a refund or compensation?
The airlines will be required to issue full refunds, according to the FAA. However, they aren’t required to cover extra costs like meals or hotel stays — unless the delay or cancellation was within their control, according to the Department of Transportation.
You can also check the DOT website to see what your airline promises for refunds or other costs if your flight is disrupted.
Should I just stay home for the holidays?
Not necessarily. You might just need a little more planning and flexibility than usual.
A travel adviser can help take some stress off your plate, and travel insurance may give you an extra safety net.
Johnson also warned that flights could sell out fast once the shutdown ends.
“There will be a flurry of booking activity,” he said. “So try to get ahead of it and make sure that you’re protected.”
Booking an early flight can also help, says Tyler Hosford, security director at risk mitigation company International SOS. If it gets canceled, you still “have the whole day” to sort things out.
Other tips
Travel light. Limiting baggage to a carry-on means one less airport line to deal with, and if your plans change unexpectedly, you’ll already have everything with you.
Give yourself extra time at the airport, especially if you’re an anxious flyer or traveling with young children or anyone who needs extra help getting around.
And be nice. Airline agents are likely helping other frustrated travelers, too, and yelling won’t make them more willing to help. Remember, the cancellations aren’t their fault.
“An extra ounce of kindness to yourself and to others at this time of year, with all of the disruptions, will go a long way,” Johnson said.
ESTER, Alaska—At a mining site here, Rod Blakestad cracked open a shiny rock with his pick. He found quartz, a sign that the rock may contain gold.
But Blakestad, a veteran gold hunter, tossed the rock aside. He and his team of geologists were searching for something even more sought-after: antimony, an obscure element widely used in the defense industry that is now at the center of the bitter U.S.-China trade fight.
Alaska Airlines planes are shown parked at gates with Mount Rainier in the background at sunrise, March 1, 2021, at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in Seattle. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)
SEATTLE (AP) — An information technology outage has prompted Alaska Airlines to ground its planes, the airline said Thursday.
The company said in a post on the social platform X that it imposed a “temporary ground stop.” It recommended that passengers check their flight status before heading to the airport.
“We apologize for the inconvenience,” the post said.
The airline didn’t immediately respond to an email requesting more information.
The grounding was affecting Alaska Air and Horizon Air flights.
Hawaiian Airlines, which was bought by Alaska Air Group last year, said its flights are operating as scheduled.
In July, Alaska grounded all of its flights for about three hours after the failure of a critical piece of hardware at a data center.
There has been a history of computer problems disrupting flights in the industry, though most of the time the disruptions are only temporary.
Thousands of sea cucumbers have washed up on the beach in the Oregon coastal town of Seaside thanks to a combination of heavy surf and low tide.
The partially translucent gelatinous creatures are called skin breathing sea cucumbers. They normally burrow into the sand along the low tideline and farther out. But on Tuesday, they were scattered across more than 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) of Seaside Beach, said Tiffany Boothe, the assistant manager of the Seaside Aquarium.
“They are literally littering the tideline,” Boothe said. They’re about a half-inch (1.3 centimeter) long but can grow to about 6 inches (15 centimeters.)
The phenomenon can occur whenever surf and tide conditions coincide, which can mean a few times a year or once in a few years. Sometimes a few will be scattered here and there on the shore but there were large groupings on the beach during this latest episode.
The sea cucumbers aren’t capable of returning to their natural habitat on their own so they will dry up and die, Boothe said. They’ll provide nutrients for the beach hoppers, beach fleas and other invertebrates living along the tideline that will feast on them. Birds don’t eat them.
Whatever remains will likely dry up quickly and blend in with the sand. Booth suspects they’ll be gone by Wednesday or Thursday.
The scientific name for the cucumbers is Leptosynapta clarki. They live along the coast from northern California to the Gulf of Alaska.
Seaside is about 80 miles (129 kilometers) northwest of Portland, Oregon.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
The remnant storms of Typhoon Halong tore into western Alaska with such ferocity that they pulled Steven Anaver’s home from its foundation and buoyed it across choppy water — with him inside.
“I was inches away from death,” he wrote on Facebook.
The storms’ blistering winds and record-high water levels laid waste to several small communities on Oct. 12, displacing more than 2,000 people and requiring one of the most significant airlift operations in Alaska history. At least one person died, and two others are missing.
The water started rising quickly the night of Saturday, Oct. 11, in Anaver’s village of Kwigillingok, where Alaska State Troopers said at least 18 people were rescued. Videos he shared Monday with The Associated Press conveyed the desperate scene as the waters rose inside his home and the flooding raged outside.
At around 3 a.m. on Sunday, the water level rose to Anaver’s knees in about 10 minutes. Shortly after, his home teetered, tilted and started floating.
Plastic bags, boxes of blankets, a leather boot and furniture cushions floated in videos Anaver took from inside. The walls swayed like a ship’s. Outside, the power had long since been out. Dark waters lapped the house just a few feet from the window as the home drifted away. Anaver heard loud booms, and frigid wind rushed through a hole that opened in one wall.
“This was a big challenge for my anxiety,” he said. “I kept calling my family.”
More booms shook the home as waves crashed it into other structures.
“Oh God,” he wrote in a Facebook post around 5:30 a.m.
Anaver tried to take pictures to orient where he was — the camera could see better than his eyes in the darkness — but it was futile until the moon came out later that morning. He could eventually see a house he recognized. He had floated for roughly a mile.
A small hill with a board sticking out of it had stopped Anaver’s home just feet from the river, which had dragged other houses much farther away.
After 7 a.m., when the water had receded enough, two neighbors in waders came over and helped him out.
Anaver’s community was one of two Yup’ik communities that were hit hardest. In the other, Kipnuk, troopers said they rescued at least another 16 people from the catastrophic floods.
A home is left damaged in Kipnuk, Alaska, on a stream bank after the remnants of Typhoon Halong caused widespread destruction in the coastal village in Western Alaska, Friday, Oct. 17, 2025.
Marc Lester/Anchorage Daily News via AP
State troopers estimated that at least eight homes in Kipnuk and Kwigillingok were pushed from their foundations as the villages were struck by “strong winds and heavy flooding, which caused significant damage” in both areas.
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 at least 18 months, Gov. Mike Dunleavy said in a request to the White House for a major disaster declaration.
In one of the hardest hit villages, Kipnuk, an initial assessment showed that 121 homes — or 90% of the total — have been destroyed, Dunleavy wrote. In Kwigillingok, where three dozen homes floated away, slightly more than one-third of the residences are uninhabitable.
The remnants of Typhoon Halong struck the area 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.
In this photo provided by the Alaska National Guard, Sgt. Mary Miller, a helicopter crew chief, passes a bottle of water to a child while evacuating displaced people from Kwigillingok, Alaska, during recovery operations on Oct. 16, 2025.
Joseph Moon/Alaska National Guard via AP
Officials have been scrambling to airlift people from the inundated Alaska Native villages. More than 2,000 people across the region have taken shelter — either in schools in their villages, or in larger communities in southwest Alaska — or have been evacuated by military planes to Anchorage, the state’s largest city.
Anchorage leaders said Friday they expect as many as 1,600 evacuees to arrive. So far about 575 have been airlifted to the city by the Alaska National Guard and have been staying at a sports arena or a convention center. Additional flights were expected Friday and Saturday.
Officials are working on figuring out how to move people out of shelters and into short-term accommodations, such as hotels, and then longer-term housing.
“Due to the time, space, distance, geography, and weather in the affected areas, it is likely that many survivors will be unable to return to their communities this winter,” Dunleavy said. “Agencies are prioritizing rapid repairs … but it is likely that some damaged communities will not be viable to support winter occupancy, in America’s harshest climate in the U.S. Arctic.”
The Alaska National Guard C-17 Globemaster III evacuates approximately 300 displaced western Alaska residents from Bethel, Alaska, following Typhoon Halong. Oct. 15, 2025.
Alaska National Guard/Anadolu via Getty Images
The federal government has already been assisting with search and rescue, damage assessments, environmental response and evacuation support. A major disaster declaration by President Trump could provide federal assistance programs for individuals and public infrastructure, including money for emergency and permanent work.
In a social media post Friday morning, Vice President JD Vance wrote that “President Trump & I are closely tracking the storm devastation that resulted in over 1,000 citizens being airlifted out of Alaska villages. Alaskans, our prayers are with you and your federal government is working closely with” Dunleavy and Sen. Dan Sullivan “to get you the help you need.”
The three members of Alaska’s congressional delegation on Friday sent a letter to Mr. Trump, urging swift approval.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said Friday night that he had deployed resources and “emergency management personnel” to Alaska in response to a request for assistance from Alaska’s Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.
The personnel will “assist the State of Alaska’s Emergency Operations Center and field operations in a variety of roles, including voluntary agency coordination as well as volunteer and donations management,” Abbott’s office said in a news release.
The storm surge pummeled a sparsely populated region off the state’s main road system, where communities are reachable only by air or water this time of year. The villages typically have just a few hundred residents, who hunt and fish for much of their food, and relocating to the state’s major cities will bring a vastly different lifestyle.
Alexie Stone, of Kipnuk, arrived in Anchorage in a military jet with his brothers, children and mom, after his home was struck by the flooding. They’ve been staying at the Alaska Airlines Center at the University of Alaska, where the Red Cross provided evacuees with cots, blankets and hygiene supplies.
At least for the foreseeable future, he thinks he might try to find a job at a grocery store; he used to work in one in Bethel.
“It’s going to be, try to look for a place and find a job,” Stone said Friday. “We’re starting a new life here in Anchorage.”
Anchorage officials and business leaders said Friday they were eager to help the evacuees.
“Our neighbors in western Alaska have experienced tremendous loss, devastation and grief,” Mayor Suzanne LaFrance said at a meeting of the Anchorage Assembly. “We will do everything we can here in Anchorage to welcome our neighbors and help them through these difficult times.”
LaFrance later Friday signed an emergency proclamation “to help support the state’s ongoing emergency response to Typhoon Halong in Western Alaska, which brought unprecedented flooding that destroyed large amounts of property and displaced hundreds of our fellow Alaskans from their homes.”
State Rep. Nellie Unangiq Jimmie, of Toksook Bay, on an island northwest of Kipnuk, described for the assembly how she rode out the storm’s 100 mph winds with her daughter and niece.
“We had no choice but to sit in our home and wait to see if our house is going to come off the foundation or if debris is going to bust open our windows,” she said.
It didn’t, but others weren’t as fortunate. She thanked Anchorage for welcoming the evacuees.
“You are showing my people, my relatives, my constituents, even if they are far from home, this is still Alaska land and they’re amongst families,” Jimmie said.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — 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 at least 18 months, Gov. Mike Dunleavy said in a request to the White House for a major disaster declaration.
In one of the hardest hit villages, Kipnuk, an initial assessment showed that 121 or homes — or 90% of the total — have been destroyed, Dunleavy wrote. In Kwigillingok, where three dozen homes floated away, slightly more than one-third of the residences are uninhabitable.
The remnants of Typhoon Halong struck the area 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. Hundreds of evacuees have been flown to Anchorage on military transport flights, with additional flights planned Friday and Saturday. Dunleavy said he expects more than 1,500 people to be relocated to major cities in the state.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
The house rocked as though an earthquake had struck, and suddenly it was floating. Water seeped in through the front door, and waves smacked the big glass window.
From the lone dry room where Alexie Stone and his brothers and children gathered, he could look outside and see under the water, like an aquarium. A shed drifted toward them, threatening to shatter the glass, but turned away before it hit.
The house came to rest just a few feet away from where it previously stood, after another building blocked its path. But it remains uninhabitable, along with most of the rest of Stone’s Alaska Native village of Kipnuk, following an immense storm surge that flooded coastal parts of western Alaska, left one person dead and two missing, and prompted a huge evacuation effort to airlift more than 1,000 residents to safety.
“In our village, we’d say that we’re Native strong, we have Native pride, and nothing can break us down. But this is the hardest that we went through,” Stone said Thursday outside the Alaska Airlines Center, an arena in Anchorage, where he and hundreds of others were being sheltered. “Everybody’s taking care of everybody in there. We’re all thankful that we’re all alive.”
This photo provided by the Alaska Division of Geological Geophysical Surveys shows the village of Kipnuk, Alaska, as seen from a drone on June 21, 2022, before floods in 2024 and 2025 destroyed many buildings.
Keith C. Horen/Alaska Division of Geological Geophysical Surveys via AP
The remnants of Typhoon Halong brought record high water to low-lying Alaska Native communities last weekend and washed away homes, some with people inside. Makeshift shelters were quickly established and swelled to hold about 1,500 people, an extraordinary number in a sparsely populated region where communities are reachable only by air or water this time of year.
Bryan Fisher, the director of the Alaska Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, told CBS News on Thursday that this was one of the largest disasters the state has ever dealt with.
Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy announced on social media Thursday evening that he submitted a request to the White House asking that President Trump issue a disaster declaration for the region.
Many of the evacuees were flown first to Bethel, a regional hub of 6,000 people. But authorities sought to relocate them as shelters there approached capacity. Stone and his family spent several nights sleeping on the floor of the Kipnuk school library before being flown to Bethel and then on to Anchorage, about 500 miles east of the villages. They arrived strapped into the floor of a huge military transport plane with hundreds of other evacuees.
Another military plane carrying evacuees was due to arrive at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson on Thursday evening.
The hardest-hit communities, Kipnuk and Kwigillingok, saw water levels more than 6 feet above the highest normal tide line. Some 121 homes were destroyed in Kipnuk, a village of about 700 people, and in Kwigillingok, three dozen homes drifted away.
Cellphone service had been restored in Kwigillingok by Thursday, authorities said, and restrooms were again working at the school there, where about 350 people had sheltered overnight Tuesday.
Damage was also serious in other villages. Water, sewer and well systems were inoperable in Napaskiak, according to a statement from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Jeremy Zidek, a spokesperson with the state emergency management office, said he did not know how long the evacuation would take and said authorities were looking for additional shelters. The aim is to get people from congregate shelters into hotel rooms or dormitories, he said.
Fisher also told CBS News Thursday that, while some of the flooding hit a record level, the weather forecasting was accurate, and they received the normal weather predictions and had the right data, regardless of the reported cuts to weather balloons or other projects.
Fisher said cuts to public radio and TV did not affect communication. He acknowledged that communication was hampered after the storm, but Alaska’s KYUK and KOTZ, two public radio stations, were up and broadcasting.
While still in Kipnuk, Stone spent his days trying to help out, he said. He would make trips to the airport to pick up water or food that had been sent by other villages, and deliver it to the school. He worked to help rebuild the boardwalks on which residents get around. And when he had time, he would return to his battered house, trying to clean up some of the waterlogged clothing and electronics the floodwaters had tossed about.
But the damage is extensive. Fuel and stove oil leaked from tanks, and the odor of petroleum permeates the entire town, he said. Like other villagers in the region, his family lost stores of food intended to help them get through the winter — the refrigerator and three freezers full of halibut, salmon, moose and goose.
Stone’s mother, Julia Stone, is a village police officer in Kipnuk. She was working at the school last weekend when the winds suddenly picked up, people suddenly began arriving at the building, and her on-call police cellphone begin ringing with calls from people in need – some reporting that their houses were floating.
She tried to reach search and rescue teams and others to determine if there were available boats to help, but the situation was “chaos,” she said.
Her voice broke during an interview Thursday in Anchorage as she thanked those at the school who helped with the response. “It’s a nightmare what we went through, but I thank God we are together,” she said.
Stone said he evacuated with the clothes on his back. Most of the rest of what he owned was soaked and reeked of fuel. The Red Cross provided cots, blankets and hygiene supplies in Anchorage, he said, and he went out to a thrift store on Thursday to get more clothes: two shirts, a sweater, two pairs of pants, and tennis shoes.
He is not sure when it might be safe to return to Kipnuk.
“Everybody here that came from Kipnuk, they’re pretty strong,” Stone said. “If we have to start over, we have to start over.”
Catastrophic flooding leaves trail of destruction in western Alaska – CBS News
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Devastating storms and catastrophic flooding have left a trail of destruction in western Alaska and forced hundreds to evacuate. As Carter Evans reports, entire communities are now considered uninhabitable.
One of the most significant airlifts in Alaska history was underway Wednesday to move hundreds of people from coastal villages ravaged by high surf and strong winds from the remnants of Typhoon Halong last weekend, officials said.
The storm brought record water levels to two low-lying communities and washed away homes — some with people inside. Makeshift shelters were quickly established and swelled to about 1,500 people, an extraordinary number in a sparsely populated region where communities are reachable by air or water.
Jeremy Zidek, a spokesperson for the Alaska Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, told CBS News by phone that one person was rescued and two remained missing after a home was washed out to sea.
“There were homes washed out to sea, and unfortunately, there was one home which was occupied and three people were washed out,” Zidek told CBS News. “One person has been recovered, and two persons are still missing. That’s the most devastating impact. But we have communities all along the coast of Alaska that have been impacted.”
In this photo provided by the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service, Alaska Air National Guard rescue personnel conduct a search and rescue mission in Kipnuk, Alaska, on Monday, Oct. 13, 2025.
Defense Visual Information Distribution Service via AP
About 300 evacuees were being brought to Anchorage on Wednesday, about 500 miles east of the battered coastline villages, according to the state Department of Military and Veterans Affairs. Zidek said some evacuees were being received at a temporary shelter set up at the Alaska Airlines Center, an arena in Anchorage.
The remoteness and the scale of the destruction created challenges for getting resources in place. Damage assessments have been trickling in as responders have shifted from initial search-and-rescue operations to trying to stabilize or restore basic services.
“The storm struck on Saturday evening,” Zidek told CBS News. “I believe by Sunday morning the Alaska National Guard and the Alaska State Troopers launched aircraft to get into the communities and perform rescues, and they were literally plucking people off of roofs, going into homes, helping people wade out of the water, and lifting them in baskets and getting them to safety.”
The communities of Kipnuk and Kwigillingok near the Bering Sea saw water levels more than 6 feet above the highest normal tide line.
Some homes cannot be reoccupied, even with emergency repairs, and others may not be livable by winter, said emergency management officials. Forecasters say rain and snow is possible in the region this weekend, with average temperatures soon below freezing.
Mark Roberts, the incident commander with the state emergency management agency, said the immediate focus was on “making sure people are safe, warm and cared for while we work with our partners to restore essential services.”
Meantime, restrooms were again working at the school in Kwigillingok, where about 350 people had sheltered overnight Tuesday, according to a state emergency management statement.
“Damage to many homes is severe, and the community leadership is instructing residents not to reenter homes due to safety concerns,” it said.
Shelter space closer to home — in the southwest Alaska regional hub of Bethel — had been reaching capacity, officials said.
Zidek did not know how long the evacuation process would take and said authorities were looking for additional sheltering locations. The aim is to get people from congregate shelters into hotel rooms or dormitories, he said.
“I’d like to note that these communities are extremely remote,” Zidek told CBS News. “There are no roads to any of them. The only reliable way to get in and out of them on a regular basis is by air and sometimes storms like the ones that impacted these communities make it impossible to reach them for long periods of time.”
The crisis unfolding in southwest Alaska has drawn attention to Trump administration cuts to grants aimed at helping small, mostly Indigenous villages prepare for storms or mitigate disaster risks.
For example, a $20 million U.S. Environmental Protection Agency grant to Kipnuk, which was inundated by floodwaters, was terminated by the Trump administration, a move challenged by environmental groups. The grant was intended to protect to protect the boardwalk residents use to get around the community as well as 1,400 feet of river from erosion, according to a federal website that tracks government spending.
There was limited work on the project before the grant was ended. The village had purchased a bulldozer for shipment and briefly hired a bookkeeper, according to Public Rights Project, which represents Kipnuk.
The group said no single project was likely to prevent the recent flood. But work to remove abandoned fuel tanks and other material to prevent it from falling into the river might have been feasible during the 2025 construction season.
“What’s happening in Kipnuk shows the real cost of pulling back support that was already promised to front line communities,” said Jill Habig, CEO of Public Rights Project. “These grants were designed to help local governments prepare for and adapt to the growing effects of climate change. When that commitment is broken, it puts people’s safety, homes and futures at risk.”
More rain and wind were forecast Wednesday along the Alaskan coast where two tiny villages were decimated by the remnants of Typhoon Halong and officials were scrambling to find shelter for more than 1,500 people driven from their homes.
The weekend storm brought high winds and surf that battered the low-lying Alaska Native communities along the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta in the southwestern part of the state, nearly 500 miles from Anchorage. At least one person was killed and two were missing.
Search and rescue efforts by numerous agencies using drones, boats and aircraft were called off Tuesday evening, state troopers said in a statement.
Hundreds were staying in school shelters, including one with no working toilets, officials said. The weather system followed a storm that struck parts of western Alaska days earlier.
Across the region, more than 1,500 people were displaced. Dozens were flown to a shelter set up in the National Guard armory in the regional hub city of Bethel, a community of 6,000 people, and officials were considering flying evacuees to longer-term shelter or emergency housing in Fairbanks and Anchorage.
The hardest-hit communities included Kipnuk, population 715, and Kwigillingok, population 380. They are off the state’s main road system and reachable this time of year only by water or by air.
“Catastrophic” damage described
“It’s catastrophic in Kipnuk. Let’s not paint any other picture,” Mark Roberts, incident commander with the state emergency management division, told a news conference Tuesday. “We are doing everything we can to continue to support that community, but it is as bad as you can think.”
Among those awaiting evacuation to Bethel on Tuesday was Brea Paul, of Kipnuk, who said in a text message that she had seen about 20 homes floating away through the moonlight on Saturday night.
“Some houses would blink their phone lights at us like they were asking for help but we couldn’t even do anything,” she wrote.
The following morning, she recorded video of a house submerged nearly to its roofline as it floated past her home.
Paul and her neighbors had a long meeting in the local school gym on Monday night. They sang songs as they tried to figure out what to do next, she said. Paul wasn’t sure where she would go.
“It’s so heartbreaking saying goodbye to our community members not knowing when we’d get to see each other,” she said.
About 30 miles away in Kwigillingok, one woman was found dead.
The school was the only facility in town with full power, but it had no working toilet and 400 people stayed there Monday night. Workers were trying to fix the bathrooms; a situation report from the state emergency operations center on Tuesday noted that portable toilets, or “honey buckets,” were being used.
A preliminary assessment showed every home in the village was damaged by the storm, with about three dozen having drifted from their foundations, the emergency management office said.
Power systems flooded in Napakiak, and severe erosion was reported in Toksook Bay. In Nightmute, officials said fuel drums were reported floating in the community, and there was a scent of fuel in the air and a sheen on the water.
The National Guard was activated to help with the emergency response, and crews were trying to take advantage of any breaks in the weather to fly in food, water, generators and communication equipment.
Officials warned of a long road to recovery and a need for continued support for the hardest-hit communities. Most rebuilding supplies would have to be transported in and there is little time left with winter just around the corner.
“Indigenous communities in Alaska are resilient,” said Rick Thoman, an Alaska climate specialist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. “But, you know, when you have an entire community where effectively every house is damaged and many of them will be uninhabitable with winter knocking at the door now, there’s only so much that any individual or any small community can do.”
Thoman said the storm was likely fueled by the warm surface waters of the Pacific Ocean, which has been heating up because of human-caused climate change and making storms more intense.
The remnants of another storm, Typhoon Merbok, caused damage across a massive swath of western Alaska three years ago.
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — More rain and wind were forecast Wednesday along the Alaskan coast where two tiny villages were decimated by the remnants of Typhoon Halong and officials were scrambling to find shelter for more than 1,500 people driven from their homes.
The weekend storm brought high winds and surf that battered the low-lying Alaska Native communities along the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta in the southwestern part of the state, nearly 500 miles (800 km) from Anchorage. At least one person was killed and two were missing. The Coast Guard plucked two dozen people from their homes after the structures floated out to sea.
Hundreds were staying in school shelters, including one with no working toilets, officials said. The weather system followed a storm that struck parts of western Alaska days earlier.
Across the region, more than 1,500 people were displaced. Dozens were flown to a shelter set up in the National Guard armory in the regional hub city of Bethel, a community of 6,000 people, and officials were considering flying evacuees to longer-term shelter or emergency housing in Fairbanks and Anchorage.
The hardest-hit communities included Kipnuk, population 715, and Kwigillingok, population 380. They are off the state’s main road system and reachable this time of year only by water or by air.
“It’s catastrophic in Kipnuk. Let’s not paint any other picture,” Mark Roberts, incident commander with the state emergency management division, told a news conference Tuesday. “We are doing everything we can to continue to support that community, but it is as bad as you can think.”
Among those awaiting evacuation to Bethel on Tuesday was Brea Paul, of Kipnuk, who said in a text message that she had seen about 20 homes floating away through the moonlight on Saturday night.
“Some houses would blink their phone lights at us like they were asking for help but we couldn’t even do anything,” she wrote.
The following morning, she recorded video of a house submerged nearly to its roofline as it floated past her home.
Paul and her neighbors had a long meeting in the local school gym on Monday night. They sang songs as they tried to figure out what to do next, she said. Paul wasn’t sure where she would go.
“It’s so heartbreaking saying goodbye to our community members not knowing when we’d get to see each other,” she said.
About 30 miles (48 kilometers) away in Kwigillingok, one woman was found dead and authorities on Monday night called off the search for two men whose home floated away.
The school was the only facility in town with full power, but it had no working toilet and 400 people stayed there Monday night. Workers were trying to fix the bathrooms; a situation report from the state emergency operations center on Tuesday noted that portable toilets, or “honey buckets,” were being used.
A preliminary assessment showed every home in the village was damaged by the storm, with about three dozen having drifted from their foundations, the emergency management office said.
Power systems flooded in Napakiak, and severe erosion was reported in Toksook Bay. In Nightmute, officials said fuel drums were reported floating in the community, and there was a scent of fuel in the air and a sheen on the water.
The National Guard was activated to help with the emergency response, and crews were trying to take advantage of any breaks in the weather to fly in food, water, generators and communication equipment.
Long road to recovery ahead, officials say
Officials warned of a long road to recovery and a need for continued support for the hardest-hit communities. Most rebuilding supplies would have to be transported in and there is little time left with winter just around the corner.
“Indigenous communities in Alaska are resilient,” said Rick Thoman, an Alaska climate specialist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. “But, you know, when you have an entire community where effectively every house is damaged and many of them will be uninhabitable with winter knocking at the door now, there’s only so much that any individual or any small community can do.”
Thoman said the storm was likely fueled by the warm surface waters of the Pacific Ocean, which has been heating up because of human-caused climate change and making storms more intense.
Johnson and Attanasio reported from Seattle.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
One person was dead and two were missing in western Alaska on Monday after the remnants of Typhoon Halong brought hurricane-force winds and ravaging storm surges and floodwaters over the weekend that swept some homes away, authorities said. More than 50 people had been rescued – some plucked from rooftops.
Officials warned of a long road to recovery and a need for continued support for the hardest-hit communities with winter just around the corner. A U.S. Coast Guard official, Capt. Christopher Culpepper, described the situation in the villages of Kipnuk and Kwigillingok as “absolute devastation.”
Alaska State Troopers said at least 51 people and two dogs were rescued in Kipnuk and Kwigillingok after the storm system walloped the communities. Both areas saw significant storm surge, according to the National Weather Service.
A woman was found dead and two people remained unaccounted for in Kwigillingok, troopers said. The agency earlier said it was working to confirm secondhand reports of people who were unaccounted for in Kipnuk but IT SAID late Monday that troopers had determined no one there was missing.
Troopers said it and several other agencies were searching by boat and from the air for the missing people. Troopers said they also sent a helicopter from Fairbanks to aid in the search and deliver generators and fuel to the communities.
Coping as storm was hitting
According to the nonprofit Coastal Villages Region Fund, most of the residents in both communities had taken shelter in local schools.
In addition to housing concerns, residents impacted by the system across the region reported power outages, a lack of running water, subsistence foods stocked in freezers ruined and damage to home-heating stoves. That damage could make the winter difficult in remote communities where people store food from hunting and fishing to help make it through the season.
Jamie Jenkins, 42, who lives in another hard-hit community, Napakiak, said the storm was “the worst I’ve ever seen.” She described howling winds and fast-rising waters Sunday morning.
Her mother – whose nearby home shifted on its foundation – and a neighbor whose home flooded came over to Jenkins’ place. They tried to wait out the storm, she said, but when the waters reached their top stairs, they got in a boat and evacuated to the school.
Jenkins said “practically the whole community” was there. The men in town gathered their boats and went house to house to pick up anyone else who was still in their homes, she said.
Adaline Pete, who lives in another community, Kotlik, said she had never experienced winds so strong. An unoccupied house next door flipped over but she said her family felt safe in their home.
Climate funds in doubt
During a news conference organized by Gov. Mike Dunleavy, Alaska’s two U.S. senators, Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, said they would continue to focus on climate resilience and infrastructure funds for Alaska. Sullivan said it was the congressional delegation’s job to ensure the Trump administration and their colleagues understood the importance of such funds.
Murkowski said erosion mitigation projects take time to complete. “But our reality is, we are seeing these storms coming … certainly on a more frequent basis, and the intensity that we’re seeing seems to be accumulating as well, and so the time to act on it is now because it’s going to take us some time to get these in place,” she said of such projects.
About 380 people live in Kwigillingok, a predominately Alaska Native community on the western shore of Kuskokwim Bay and near the mouth of the Kuskokwim River. A report prepared for the local tribe in 2022 by the Alaska Institute for Justice said the frequency and severity of flooding in the low-lying region had increased in recent years. The report listed relocation of the community as an urgent need.
Erosion and melting permafrost pose threats to infrastructure and in some cases entire communities in Alaska, which is experiencing the impacts of climate change.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Some homes were ordered evacuated in wildfire-scarred Los Angeles neighborhoods as Southern California was hit by a rare October storm that was expected to pummel the region with heavy rain, high winds and possible mudslides.
“We’re very concerned about the weather,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said during a news conference Monday night, explaining that strike teams, rescue teams and helicopters were all ready to respond.
The evacuations covered about 115 homes mostly in Pacific Palisades and Mandeville Canyon, both struck by a massive inferno in January that killed more than 30 people in all and destroyed over 17,000 homes and buildings in Los Angeles County. Wildfires can leave hillsides without vegetation to hold soil in place, making it easier for the terrain to loosen during storms.
Bass and other officials warned residents across the region to remain alert and stay indoors. The worst was expected to begin early Tuesday and carry through the afternoon, and more than 16,000 had already lost power as of Monday night, according to PowerOutage.us.
The storm could result in up to 4 inches (10.2 centimeters) of rain in some areas, according to the National Weather Service’s Los Angeles office, which described it as a “rare and very potent storm system.”
Ariel Cohen, meteorologist in charge of the National Weather Service in Los Angeles, said the storm could even bring a couple of tornadoes, and one major challenge is its unpredictability.
“The nature of this system is such that we cannot be certain about exactly when and where these impacts will strike, the exact details until right before they occur at the earliest,” he said.
Teams from the Los Angeles Fire Department had started patrolling the area Monday night and a section of state Route 27, beginning at the Pacific Coast Highway, was closed in preparation for the storm, the California Department of Transportation, known as Caltrans, said on social media.
The weather service also warned of high winds that could knock down trees and power lines.
To the north, up to 3 feet (1 meter) of mountain snow was predicted for parts of the Sierra Nevadas.
Heavy rain had already started falling Monday evening across much of Northern California, bringing some urban flooding around the San Francisco Bay Area.
Gladstones Restaurant, located along the Pacific Coast Highway, said it was closing on Tuesday in anticipation of the heavy rains. The Pacific Palisades establishment is located at an intersection that has experienced heavy debris flow during past rains.
In February, torrential rains unleashed debris flows and mudslides in several neighborhoods torched by the January fires. In the community of Sierra Madre, near the site of the Eaton Fire, water, debris and boulders rushed down the mountain, trapping cars in the mud and damaging several home garages. A portion of the Pacific Coast Highway by Pacific Palisades was submerged in at least 3 feet of sludge, and a swift debris flow swept a Los Angeles Fire Department vehicle into the ocean.
Concerns about post-fire debris flows have been especially high since 2018, when the town of Montecito, up the coast from Los Angeles, was ravaged by mudslides after a downpour hit mountain slopes burned bare by a huge blaze. Hundreds of homes were damaged and 23 people died.
Elsewhere in the U.S., Typhoon Halong brought hurricane-force winds and ravaging storm surges and floodwaters that swept some homes away in Alaska over the weekend. One person was dead and two were missing in western Alaska on Monday, while more than 50 people had been rescued — some plucked from rooftops.
Officials warned of a long road to recovery and a need for continued support for the hardest-hit communities with winter just around the corner.
In Tempe, Arizona, a microburst and thunderstorm on Monday dropped about a half-inch of rain within 10 minutes, the National Weather Service said. The storm caused significant damage, including uprooting trees that toppled onto vehicles and buildings, and dropping them on streets and sidewalks. A business complex had its roof torn off, and thousands of homes lost power.
Golden reported from Seattle. Associated Press writer Becky Bohrer contributed from Juneau, Alaska.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
LONG BEACH, N.Y. (AP) — A political candidate in the New York City suburbs went for a night swim in the Atlantic Ocean this past spring and never returned.
Petros Krommidas’ phone, keys and clothes were found on the sands at Long Beach on Long Island. The 29-year-old former Ivy League rower, who was training for a triathlon, had parked his car just off the picturesque wooden boardwalk.
As the months passed, local Democrats attempted to field a replacement to run for the seat in the Nassau County Legislature.
But two Republican voters took them to court and won: a state judge recently ordered Krommidas’ name to remain on the November ballot, ruling that he’s still considered missing and not officially deceased.
Now, as Election Day approaches, voters in Long Beach and other South Shore communities have a curious choice: reelect the Republican incumbent or the Democrat who seemingly vanished at sea.
Democrats want to elect the missing candidate
James Hodge is among those calling on residents to cast their ballots for Krommidas regardless — hoping to trigger a special election in which Democrats can put forward another candidate to run against County Legislator Patrick Mullaney.
The Long Beach resident worked with Krommidas at the Nassau County Board of Elections and had been tapped by Democrats to run in his place.
“We need to stand by and honor his name and memory,” Hodge told The Associated Press. “Let’s give him that victory. It’s the right thing to do.”
The Republican voters argued in their lawsuit that Democrats couldn’t claim Krommidas was dead because authorities still considered him a missing person. Under law, someone needs to be missing for at least three years to be legally declared dead, they argued.
Judge Gary Knobel agreed, writing in his Sept. 29 ruling that “‘missing person’ status does not qualify as a vacancy that can be filled.”
Dead candidates have won elections before
The justice, in his ruling, noted a similar situation decades earlier in Alaska.
U.S. Rep. Nicholas Begich Sr. disappeared in a plane crash weeks before the 1972 vote but still won reelection. The Alaska Democrat was eventually declared dead, and his Republican opponent claimed the seat in a special election.
More recently, Dennis Hof, owner of the Nevada brothel featured on HBO’s “Cathouse” documentary series, died weeks before the 2018 election but still captured a seat in the state Legislature. In 2022, Pennsylvania state Rep. Anthony DeLuca won reelection after dying from lymphoma the month prior.
Hodge and other Democrats argue that Republicans only sued to assure themselves victory as they seek to bolster their majority in the county legislature. They say the lawsuit has only prolonged the anguish for Krommidas’ family.
“I understand politics, but there’s a time to stop and be a human being,” said Ellen Lederer-DeFrancesco, who met Krommidas through the local Democratic Party. “Petros is someone’s son, brother, friend.”
Nassau County Republican Committee Chairman Joseph Cairo Jr., in a statement, vowed the party and its candidates will “show the highest level of sensitivity during these challenging times for the Krommidas family.”
Krommidas’ family declined to comment when reached by phone, but his mother and sister each took to Facebook recently to share a post calling for residents to “honor and vote” for him.
“My Peter cared deeply about people and his community and continues to inspire kindness and unity in our community,” his mother, Maria, wrote in her post.
Eleni-Lemonia Krommidas, his sister, described him in her own post as a first-generation American who loved his country and “believed in equality, education, and the power of unity.”
Voters weigh in on the beach where he vanished
In the days after his disappearance, family and friends joined first responders in scouring Long Beach’s broad, more than 3-mile-long (4.8-kilometer-long) swath of sand, which is located just east of the New York City borough of Queens.
Some of the missing persons fliers they put up with images of Krommidas’ youthful, smiling face are tattered and faded but still visible on telephone poles around Long Beach.
Meanwhile campaign signs for Mullaney, his opponent, are prominently displayed on fences along the main thoroughfares and on tidy residential lawns. The Republican didn’t respond to emails seeking comment.
Along the Long Beach boardwalk last week, longtime resident Maude Carione was dumbstruck at the choice facing voters in November.
“It’s insane to leave his name on the ballot. You’ll confuse people,” said the 72-year-old, who supports Republican President Donald Trump but didn’t have plans to vote in the upcoming election, which features mostly local races. “In fairness, you have to give another candidate a chance for the Democrats. You have to.”
For resident Regina Pecorella, the decision, while grim, was clear.
“If it’s between those two, I’m voting for the person that’s alive,” said the 54-year old independent, who voted for a straight Republican ticket in the previous election. “I don’t know how else to answer that.”
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
The remnants of Typhoon Halong brought hurricane-force winds and catastrophic flooding to coastal communities in western Alaska on Sunday, pushing entire houses off their foundations.
Rescue aircraft were dispatched 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.
Alaska State Troopers said both Kipnuk and Kwigillingok were hit by “strong winds and heavy flooding overnight, which caused significant damage, including at least eight homes being pushed from their foundations.”
In Kwigillingok, at least 18 people were rescued, while at least 16 people were rescued in Kipnuk, Alaska State Troopers said Sunday night local time. Three people were still unaccounted for in Kwigillingok as of 6:50 p.m. local time. Troopers had also received reports of people still unaccounted for in Kipnuk, but could not confirm the exact number.
More than a dozen agencies are involved in the disaster response, CBS affiliate KXDF-TV reported, including the Alaska National Guard.
“The Alaska Organized Militia, which includes the Alaska National Guard, Alaska State Defense Force, and Alaska Naval Militia, has been requested to activate up to 60 members to assist with storm response operations across affected western Alaska communities,” the National Guard wrote Saturday.
Alaska governor: “Help is on the way”
More than 170 people stayed overnight at a community shelter in Kipnuk, where the water rose overnight 6.6 feet above the highest tide. At least eight homes were swept away, 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. 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.
“Every effort will be made to help those hit by this storm. Help is on the way,” Gov. Mike Dunleavy said in a statement.
Dunleavy also said he has expanded the state’s disaster declaration to include areas impacted by the storm. He initially issued the disaster declaration Thursday in western Alaska following another powerful storm.
