Testifying before the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs about last fall’s deadly remnants of Typhoon Halong, Paul J. Paul, Chief of the Native Village of Kipnuk, recalled the moment his six-year-old granddaughter asked the family to sing “Silent Night” — in the dark — as early-morning floodwaters swirled violently around their home.
Lucy Martin, a tribal resilience assistant coordinator for Kwigillingok, listened as she dabbed her eyes dry. Earlier that day, she described graves and caskets unearthed by the storm rolling outside her window as her home broke free from its foundation and floated away. “It was a real-life horror movie for me,” she said.
Over two days of field hearings in Anchorage and Bethel, storm survivors from the hard-hit villages of Kipnuk and Kwigillingok offered a rare, emotional account of the fear and lingering hardships linked to the October 12 storm that killed at least one, left two others missing and displaced residents of both communities. Tribal leaders and policy officials used the hearings to urge Congress to rethink how federal agencies handle disaster recovery in rural Alaska .
Only Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska and chair of the committee, attended the hearings on behalf of the Senate panel. Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Billy Kirkland also participated in the discussions alongside Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, who joined the first day of testimony in Anchorage…