Alaska's public schools can serve as emergency shelters. The buildings are in crisis

"On a Sunday morning last month, James Taq'ac Amik was huddled on a small bridge with his girlfriend. At 4 a.m., they had scrambled into an 18-foot aluminum motor boat, fleeing floodwaters from a massive storm surge that inundated Kipnuk, a village of 700 people in the heart of western Alaska's sprawling Kuskokwim river delta. "I couldn't make it up. I tried, but the wind was too strong to try and go by boat, so we ended up staying on the bridge for five hours," Amik said."

"Things only grew more dramatic. "The houses started drifting away around 5:30 a.m.," Amik said. "There was still lights in them, there was people in them." When they set out, the couple was planning to head to Kipnuk's public school, the largest building in the Alaska Native Yup'ik village. At least that building, they hoped at the time, would be secure. The storm that hit Alaska's west coast in mid-October was the remnants of Typhoon Halong, which picked up momentum in a warmer-than-normal Pacific Ocean."

"After the wind died down and the floodwaters receded, the village lay in ruins. But while the school still stood relatively unscathed on its steel pilings more than 20 feet above the muck and wreckage, there were other problems inside. District staff had been working on much-needed upgrades to its main generator. Then the school's backup generator sputtered. Everyone in the community, including Amik and his girlfriend, stayed for two days until local leaders decided the storm had done too much damage and organized a mass evacuation."

Kipnuk, a 700-person Alaska Native Yup'ik village in the Kuskokwim river delta, was inundated by a storm surge from the remnants of Typhoon Halong. Residents scrambled into small boats and took refuge on a bridge as houses began drifting away and lights remained on inside. The public school, the largest building and built on steel pilings more than 20 feet above ground, remained standing but its backup generator failed while main-generator upgrades were underway. Community members sheltered in the school for two days before local leaders organized a mass evacuation. Many remote Alaskan villages rely on schools as emergency shelters because of their toilets, generators, pilings, and size.

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