User:Rtnf/Catalogue/Alaska

On October 11th, 2025 , Typhoon Halong struck the southwest coast of Alaska, causing widespread damage to numerous Alaska Native settlements. Several aid organizations are now operating in the region to assist the thousands of residents who were forced to evacuate, many of whom will not be able to return to their villages until at least next spring.

The American Red Cross has requested help from the OpenStreetMap community to map buildings and roads in settlements across the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. Improving OSM data about these places will help with damage assessment and may also aid search and rescue efforts.

Chronology

• December 2006 : The name “Halong” was contributed by Vietnam to the naming list used by the Typhoon Committee (under WMO) for tropical cyclones in the Western North Pacific / South China Sea region. It was named after Halong Bay, a UNESCO World heritage site in northern Vietnam.
• 2022 : After historic storms hit remote villages across Western Alaska, the Federal Emergency Management Agency hired a California-based contractor to help residents access disaster aid. Their job was to translate applications for financial assistance.
  • The Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta is a constellation of small Alaska Native communities, and nearly half the region's population (some 10,000 people) learn to speak Yugtun, the Central Yup'ik dialect, before they learn English. Farther north, approximately 3,000 people speak Iñupiaq.
• 12 October 2025 : Typhoon Halong brought record-breaking winds and flooding to the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta overnight on October 12th, 2025, hitting the Kuskokwim Delta coast especially hard.
• 13 October 2025 : A woman has been found dead in Kwigilingok, two days after a devastating storm hit the Kuskokwim Delta coast. Kwigillingok was one of the hardest-hit communities in the October 11th storm.
  • Troopers are actively searching for two people who are still missing from Kwigillingok.
  • Alaska State Troopers identified the missing people as VP (71) and CK (41) and said they had located the body of EMK (67). All three were residents of the hard-hit village of Kwigillingok and members of the same family. A court administrator in Kwigillingok said in an interview that she saw their house floating off its foundation as floodwaters rose on Sunday, October 12th, 2025. The US Coast Guard, Alaska State Troopers, and Alaska National Guard said they were unable to locate a floating house and its occupants before they suspended their active search on the evening of Monday, October 13th, 2025.
• 21 October 2025 : A Minneapolis-based company posted an ad seeking "experienced, professional Translators and Interpreters" of Yup'ik, Iñupiaq, and other Alaska Native languages.
• 22 October 2025 : The Trump administration approved a disaster declaration for the storm.
• 22 October 2025  : "During Typhoon Halong, subsistence foods, that were harvested and prepared, were lost. For anyone who is still in the area, this is just a reminder that the waters of the Kuskokwim River and its tributaries are currently open to fishing with all gears for all species of fish. There is no way to replace the salmon that were lost, but the resident species that are traditionally harvested during this time of the year are present in the river now." - Alaska Department of Fish and Game.
• 23 October 2025 : The federal disaster declaration that was approved on October 23rd includes $25 million toward disaster relief, according to President Trump.
• 25 October 2025 : "In Kipnuk and Kwigillingok, there's obviously been a lot of destruction. The storm caused flooding, caused -- especially in Kipnuk -- houses to all get smashed into each other.
• 14 November 2025 : Typhoon Halong displaced more than 1,500 residents and killed at least one person in the village of Kwigillingok in mid-October.

Places

Bethel :

• 14 November 2025 : In Bethel, the city government said that as of November 14th, 296 individuals, hosted in 61 local households, were temporarily sheltering with family or friends.
• Akiak Akiak (Central Yupik: Akiaq)
• Chuathbaluk Chuathbaluk (Central Yupik: Curarpalek)
  • 1960s : Chuathbaluk was the site of an Deg Xinag Indian summer fish camp in the mid-19th century. The village has been known as Chukbak, St. Sergius Mission, Kuskokwim Russian Mission, and Little Russian Mission. The village was often confused with Russian Mission on the Yukon, so in the 1960s the name was changed to Chuathbaluk, which is derived from the Yup'ik word Curapaluk, meaning "Home of the Big Blueberries."
• Napakiak Napakiak (Central Yupik: Naparyarraq)
  • 2 November 2025 : Members of the Alaska Air and Army National Guard, Alaska Naval Militia, and Alaska State Defense Force work together to load plywood onto a CH-47 Chinook helicopter, in Bethel, Alaska, bound for the village of Napakiak. The materials will help residents rebuild homes and restore community spaces damaged by past storms.

Dillingham Dillingham :

• Nushagak Nushagak
• Kanakanak Kanakanak
• Twin Hills Twin Hills (Central Yupik: Ingricuar)
  • 1965 : The village was established in 1965 by families who moved from Togiak to avoid the recurrent flooding there. The people have strong cultural ties to the Yukon-Kuskokwim region, because many of their ancestors migrated to Togiak following the 1918-19 influenza epidemic.
• Portage Creek Portage Creek
  • 1961 : This site was used by the Yup'ik Eskimos as an overnight summer camp. Portage Creek was so named because it was used to portage boats from the Nushagak River to the Kvichak River. In this way, travelers could avoid the open waters of Bristol Bay and the long trip around Etolin Point. The village was permanently settled in 1961 by some families from Koliganek and other village up the Nushagak River.

Yukon River :

• Marshall Marshall (Central Yupik: Masserculleq)
  • 1984 : Gold was discovered on nearby Wilson Creek in 1913. “Fortuna Ledge” became a placer mining camp. Later, the village was named for Thomas Riley Marshall, Vice President of the United States under Woodrow Wilson from 1913-21. The community became known as “Marshall’s Landing.”When the village incorporated as a second-class city in 1970, it was named Fortuna Ledge but was commonly referred to as Marshall. The name was officially changed to Marshall in 1984.
  • 12 October 2025 : "Hello Marshall. We have few power lines down. One line is down near the old Head Start building. Another line is down because a section of the Police Department (PD) roof was blown off and landed on it. A third power line is down near the upper end of town."
  • 13 October 2025 : "The storm had popped open the windows, and the shed against the porch fell off."
  • 13 October 2025 : "We have families with fish, meat, and berries in their freezers. Food for the winter. Hoping power will be restored soon in parts of town without power. Anyone in Marshall has a generator I can borrow please. All my family's food in my freezers will melt and spoil if no power is restored.
  • 13 October 2025 : "We're currently experiencing a network outage affecting all GCI services in parts of Western Alaska due to storm-related power outages."
    • "Update (10AM) : Service has resumed in most Western Alaska communities. However, some communities are still without power, which is impacting service."
• Pitkas Point Pitkas Point (Central Yupik: Negeqliim Painga)
  • 1900 : "Pitkas Point is a native settlement of Eskimo fishermen and hunters situated at the mouth of the Andreafski River. The settlement has a population of about 75 Eskimos. There are a dozen huts made of driftwood covered with sods, a few log cabins, a small chapel, a store, and trader's dwelling. The trader is a half-breed Russian, named Pitka, and his store is a branch of the Northern Commercial Company's station at Andreafski. Besides fishing and hunting for a living, the native population at Pitkas Point collect driftwood during the spring freshets and cut it up into cord wood for sale to passing steamers. They appear to be rather energetic, probably owing to the influence and good example of Pitka, who is a man of considerable intelligence and business ability."
• Holy Cross Holy Cross (Degexit'an: Deloy Chet) (Central Yupik: Ingirraller)
  • 1840s : It first had contact with Europeans in the early 1840s, when Russian explorers led by Lt. Zagoskin traveled the Yukon River.
  • 1880s : A Catholic mission and school were established in the 1880s by Father Aloysius Robaut, who came to Alaska across the Chilkoot Trail. Athabascans migrated to Holy Cross to be near the mission and school. A post office was opened in 1899 under the name “Koserefsky.”
  • 1889 :
    • "We arrived at Koserefski, at which place is situated the Roman Catholic Mission of the Holy Cross. Besides maintaining a school for the instruction of the native children, the community of missionaries have cleared about 6 acres of ground and planted it to garden vegetables. Each year it produces an abundant crop of cabbages, turnips, radishes, lettuce, beets, and other hardy vegetables."
    • "Koserefski, or Holy Cross Mission, is 28 miles above Pimute village and its situation on the right bank of the Yukon is very similar to that of Russian mission. There is at this place a mission school in charge of Sisters of the Catholic Order of St. Anne for the instruction of native children. The pupils are instructed in the fundamental rudiments of an English education, and in addition to their other duties, the girls are required to learn how to sew, cook, and take care of a house generally. The boys are taught gardening and take use of simple tools. There is a garden always maintained at Holy Cross by the sisters. Two or three cows are also kept, which furnish fresh milk for the school, the only place in the district where this article can be obtained. The settlement has a resident population of about 350 souls and a very much larger population of natives living in the region lying between the Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers make this their headquarters during the trading season. The natives on this part of the river are mostly of the Ingalik or Indian tribes of the interior."
    • "At Koserefsky, 75 miles above Russian Mission, are some 150 natives. And about 300 more in the immediate vicinity, most of these latter living on Shagaluk Slough. Located here is Holy Cross Mission, under the charge of the Jesuit Fathers and the Sisters of St. Anne. The mission occupies a small sheltered valley facing the river and here have been built some very comfortable houses. The most attractive part of the mission to a traveler, however, are the gardens. One of the sisters had a garden of old-fashioned flowers, to remind of her home, as she said. In it were blooming sweet peas, petunias, marigolds, asters, pansies, and candytuft."

Data Source

• "source=PGS" : PGS is short for "Prototype Global Shoreline" created by the US National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. Many coastline ways in OpenStreetMap were derived from the PGS dataset around 2006. The data was extracted from the public domain Landsat imagery via an automatic image recognition algorithm. Since high-quality imagery now available nearly globally, replacing the crude PGS coastlines is strictly encouraged.
  • 13 January 2008 : 20758939 20758939