MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Last year, the remnants of a typhoon tore through a number of Alaska Native villages in western Alaska. The storm destroyed infrastructure and displaced more than a thousand people. A year later, hundreds remain displaced as repair continues slowly. KYUK's Samantha Watson checked in with the community that was hit the hardest.
SAMANTHA WATSON, BYLINE: In Kipnuk, Alaska, Eddie Chuckwuk's construction crew is attempting what sounds like magic, raising a building back onto its foundations using air compressors. Chuckwuk is one of several dozen people working long days to rebuild the place where he grew up.
EDDIE CHUCKWUK: We're working as fast as possible as we can to get, like, the people back in town.
WATSON: This village of under 200 homes is situated on the wide-open tundra and only consistently accessible by plane. A year ago, 90% of those homes were damaged by the remnants of Typhoon Halong. Dozens were swept off their foundations, some with families still inside. The community is now largely scattered across Alaska, some outside the region their ancestors have lived in for thousands of years.
CHUCKWUK: That's what I just want to see - for everybody to come back and enjoy where they grew up instead of being placed in a different place or a different area where they're not used to. It's pretty hard.
WATSON: The state says most people in Kipnuk didn't have home or flood insurance. They estimate that funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency will make most of the homes livable by Thanksgiving, meaning replacing wet insulation and repairing windows, doors and roofs. But the funds won't be enough to return some severely damaged homes to how they were before the storm. The state is currently appealing for additional funding to build replacement housing. There's also no estimate on when the school will reopen. Leona Paul, who has been working as a cook to feed the construction teams, says even if the houses are habitable, some people were too traumatized by the storm to return.
LEONA PAUL: I think it's too overwhelming for them, especially the older people.
WATSON: And climate change is making towns like Kipnuk more vulnerable to future storms. Most people in town want to rebuild the village somewhere safer, but the funding they have received so far from FEMA can only go towards restoring what was damaged. Kipnuk hasn't yet found the money to move. But right now, residents may not have a better option than moving back. Many say living in bigger towns or cities like Anchorage has been tough. People aren't speaking as much Yugtun, the native language. They're farther from loved ones. Their kids, who are used to playing all over town, have to watch out for cars.
L PAUL: I like being here. You're free to do anything you want. In a city, you just can't do whatever you want.
WATSON: Being displaced from the village also has meant separation from the Alaskan Native cultural practices of hunting and gathering traditional food on the land. Some residents, like Burt Paul's family, traveled home for the summer to practice subsistence and be together.
(SOUNDBITE OF BERRIES DROPPING INTO BUCKET)
WATSON: Upriver from Kipnuk on a lush tundra bluff, his family filled buckets with sweet, orange salmonberries. He says, after last fall's destruction, he didn't know when he'd see these native plants growing again.
BURT PAUL: It beats my mind that I see food growing, grass growing, fish coming in.
WATSON: Paul's family evacuated after the storm, but he stayed behind in Kipnuk, acting as a community leader through the aftermath. Usually, his family goes camping and berry picking for days. This summer, their trips were shorter, confined to when everyone was in town.
B PAUL: We have to keep things going someway, somehow, no matter what situation we go through.
WATSON: He's not sure when his family or his village will all be back together again. For NPR, I'm Samantha Watson in Kipnuk.
(SOUNDBITE OF MINUTEMEN'S "COHESION") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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