ANCHORAGE, Alaska — At a shelter in downtown Anchorage, Alaska, on Saturday, Arthur Lake, 74, was still dealing with the shock of his new surroundings. Cars buzzed along one of the city’s main thoroughfares with loud mufflers and booming stereos.
Lake and his family recently evacuated from Kwigillingok, a tiny Alaska Native village along the Bering Sea nearly 500 miles away. There, homes and businesses on the soft, grassy tundra were connected by boardwalks, and men had been out hunting bearded seals and other marine mammals to get ready for the winter.
“That’s where we belong,” Lake said. He has been to Anchorage many times. But, he said, “It’s not home.”…