In her 17 years of flying to the coastal village of Kipnuk, Alaska, to serve as its primary care provider, Anne Komulainen had never seen it like this.

“The debris started to appear miles from the village,” Komulainen remembered. “I was in complete shock and worried for the residents.” On Oct. 12, the remnants of Typhoon Halong had decimated Kipnuk, accessible only by air and water, and caused damage in several other villages along the western coast of Alaska. Komulainen and two nurses arrived by U.S. Coast Guard helicopter 12 hours after the storm hit.

Komulainen—a physician’s assistant and a member of Table of Grace Lutheran Church in Bethel, Alaska—travels to Kipnuk twice a year. She has become part of the community, both during her visits there and when residents travel to Bethel for medical care. “I’ve been going there for so long that I have a close relationship with the elders from doing home visits,” she said. When Komulainen landed in October, ready to provide medical and logistical assistance, she saw these people’s houses crushed or floating away.

More than 700 residents sheltered at the school—30 people per classroom, sleeping on the floor. Kipnuk occupies a spongelike tundra; the school was built on pilings, and pedestrians navigate the town on boardwalks. With the boardwalks washed away, Komulainen had to crawl under one tipped-over house, then walk through another lying on its side, to reach the school from the airport.

Almost every home in Kipnuk is now unfit for habitation due to flood damage.

Once there, Komulainen and the nurses treated minor injuries such as cuts and scrapes and provided triage for those who needed to be evacuated for further medical treatment. There were no deaths or serious injuries, but the property damage was severe. Houses were ripped from their foundations; others had collapsed in rows like fallen dominos; still others floated away, one traveling more than 7 miles. Occupants had to be airlifted out in rescue buckets by Coast Guard helicopters. Almost every home in Kipnuk is now unfit for habitation due to flood damage, debris or spillage from the fuel oil tanks residents use to heat their homes.

According to Komulainen, the damage runs deeper than property and possessions. Kipnuk is the homeland for many Yupik people who trace their ancestry back generations in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, yet the floods washed away all the graves in the local cemetery. People who live a subsistence lifestyle lost freezers full of painstakingly harvested and preserved fish, berries, walrus and seal. Residents lost precious traditional items such as woven baskets and kuspuks, or hooded parkas.

“It’s so heartbreaking because I’ve been in so many people’s homes,” Komulainen said. “People have things on their walls: photos, plaques, their grandpa’s Army photo. There are so many memories and historical things. They’re just gone.”

The experience, she said, has increased her gratitude and given her new perspective. “The Yupik people know what’s important, and that’s family. They know their family is safe. It really made me think: Why am I so attached to stuff?”

In it for the long haul

Amid such brokenness, Komulainen found moments of God’s grace in the faith of the people of Kipnuk and the way they helped each other.

Shortly after Komulainen left Kipnuk, the entire village was evacuated to Bethel; many residents later flew to Anchorage. In Bethel, Table of Grace’s church building housed volunteers who had arrived to help relief efforts. Church member Elizabeth Roll volunteered at the local armory, handing out food, water and supplies to people arriving by plane from Kipnuk and other villages impacted by the flooding. Many of them arrived with little more than the clothes they were wearing. Roll also volunteered with the nonprofit Bethel Friends of Canines, helping to haul and document dogs rescued from the villages so that they could be reunited with their owners.

Though Kipnuk residents are served primarily by a local Moravian church, Table of Grace members continue to collect supplies to distribute to those impacted by flooding. The congregation recently distributed jackets, snow pants, boots, sheets and towels purchased by the ELCA Alaska Synod with funds from synods in Texas and North Carolina.

“The response has been overwhelming from the Lutheran congregations in Alaska and other Lutheran congregations across the country.”

Table of Grace also operates a feeding ministry that distributes grocery bags full of shelf-stable food to local schools. Roll said this operation will be even more crucial as time goes on, and Table of Grace plans to expand it if possible. Relief efforts are being supported by Lutheran Disaster Response (LDR) and Lutheran Social Services of Alaska (LSSA).

“The response has been overwhelming from the Lutheran congregations in Alaska and other Lutheran congregations across the country,” said Alan Budahl, executive director of LSSA. Budahl used funds to purchase extra food and supplies, such as diapers, for the LSSA food pantry in Anchorage, to serve residents from western Alaska who are now temporarily living in the state’s largest city.

Budahl, who works with LDR and other partners to support recovery and rebuilding efforts in villages, said that homes are still being assessed and that rebuilding will not be possible until spring 2026. Families who lost everything will need help reestablishing their households, Budahl said, and Lutherans are in it for the long haul.

“There’s going to be a long-term need,” Budahl said. “Lutheran Disaster Response is for long-term recovery.”

To help

Donations can be made to the Alaska Community Foundation’s Western Alaska Disaster Relief Fund, LSSA and Bethel Friends of Canines.

Lisa A. Smith
Lisa A. Smith is a writer and ELCA pastor in Anchorage, Alaska, where she blogs at pastorlisawrites.com.

Read more about:

Congregational life, Mission & ministry, Religious news & social issues   disasters, ELCA congregations, Lutheran Disaster Response, Native American and Alaska Native