Murkowski Speaks on Storms, Resilience of Western Alaskans on Senate Floor

Murkowski Speaks on Storms, Resilience of Western Alaskans on Senate Floor

Washington, DC - U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) today spoke on the Senate floor regarding the recent storms that have displaced more than 1,000 Alaskans and devastated communities along the coast of Western Alaska.

Watch Senator Murkowski's full remarks here.

The rough transcript of Senator Murkowski's remarks can be found below.

Rough Transcript

Murkowski: Mr. President, I came in at the tail end of the comments from my colleague and my friend from Delaware, and he underscored some points that I think are important to remind us here in the Senate, but also people who are watching as we are now on day 16 of a government shutdown.

There's no great secret as to how we get the government fully functioning again. It's going to come about through cooperation. It's going to come about through good faith efforts by good folks who are intentioned to address the matters in front of us. We deal with politics. This is a political world. But I can tell you, so many of the people I'm talking to don't really care about the politics of our situation. They don't care if the Democrats are winning or the Republicans are winning. They feel like, as Americans, they're the ones caught in this backwash.

They don't understand why their flight was delayed or cancelled this morning. They don't understand why the individual they're trying to reach at an agency is not picking up the phone or why they get a message saying this office is closed until the government reopens. What they care about is that we figure it out. That we figure it out. And that requires communication. It requires talking with one another.

That's why I appreciate much of what my colleague has shared, because as we position ourselves as two sides seemingly dug in on this 16th day of a shutdown, real people are wondering: Is their government going to be there for them?

Mr. President, I didn't come to the floor this afternoon necessarily to focus on the shutdown. I came to speak about a situation in my state that has literally closed off, shut down, and collapsed whole communities.

We had a storm-a series of storms-hit the west coast of Alaska just over the weekend. In this smaller inset here, you see the state of Alaska, and this square panel shows the extent of the damage. This was a thousand-mile storm going from the north in Kotzebue, all the way down into the Bristol Bay region, with the bulk of the damage focused on these small Native communities on the coasts and up the Kuskokwim River.

It has been a disaster of major proportions.

We have communities being evacuated, and when we talk about evacuation, what that means is significant. People in the villages of Kipnuk and Kwigillingok are being told everyone from their village is being evacuated-not just to a town a few miles down the road for safety, but airlifted 500 miles to Anchorage or possibly closer to Bethel.

Before I detail some of that, it's important to recognize what happened over the weekend. This was a massive storm bringing winds in excess of 100 miles an hour, flood surges pummeling the coast with inundation levels we've never seen before.

We heard stories of people trapped in their homes at night when the home was literally lifted off its foundation and carried away in the current with families inside. One father of four children woke them up to say, "We all need to go into one corner of the house in case it tips," yet the fear, the terror of being trapped in your own home as it floated into the ocean was palpable.

The U.S. Coast Guard and Alaska National Guard were on deck, as they always are, saving lives. The Coast Guard rescued and saved 34 people. The Alaska Air Guard saved eight. The Alaska Air National Guard saved nine. Unfortunately, we did have one confirmed death, two others are believed deceased, and one is yet unaccounted for.

Sharing pictures of the extent of the damage, it's amazing more did not lose their lives. This is a picture of Kipnuk with the inundation-the airport and the community literally beneath water. You can see boats upended, roofs ripped off homes, destruction that's violent.

This is a home drifting in the river water, again in Kipnuk. Many of these communities are "boardwalk communities" because we don't have roads. Movement is on small four-wheelers, whether to school or elsewhere. But literally everything is upended-power poles snapped in half, no power, no water, no safe place.

Those individuals were initially rescued to schools for safety but now are part of a massive evacuation project. More than a thousand people from 11 communities have been displaced. For example, in Kipnuk, about 680 people were evacuated into a small school, and in Kwigillingok, about 400 people took shelter at the local school for a couple of days-without running water or functioning restrooms.

Efforts by search and rescue, the Coast Guard, the National Guard, and humanitarian groups such as World Central Kitchen, Samaritan's Purse, and the Red Cross have been considerable in getting people to shelter and safety.

Here's a picture taken late yesterday evening: inside a [C-17], about 300 people from Kipnuk were seated on the floor, being evacuated to Anchorage-400 miles away. Anchorage is preparing, using the Alaska Airlines Center sports arena, an auxiliary gym to shelter 350 to 500 people, plus a convention center facility for another 800.

This is all very temporary, but the reality is many will not have homes to return to. About 120 homes in Kipnuk are completely destroyed and unrepairable; about 40 may be repairable. It's October 16, and winter is coming. Construction in winter doesn't happen. The last fuel barge to this region came and went, so the ability to move supplies and do construction is halted. Many people are displaced without homes.

But I remind you-they are not homeless. They are evacuees. All they want is to be safe for the moment.

Looking forward, it will be very challenging to address the threats they face. We get storms every year, but we're seeing increasing frequency of lethal storms. Several years ago, Typhoon Merbok came across from Japan-a thousand-mile storm that pummeled the coast. We're still recovering from that. Last year, another series of disasters hit the same coast, and then just this past weekend, Typhoon Halong again crossed from Japan.

These storms usually come in October, but it used to be that by then, ice would be forming in northern waters, cooling and slowing storms. Without the ice, the waters warm, which churns the typhoons and makes them more intense.

We are seeing the real-time impacts of a warming ocean and less ice.

How we deal with these issues and build resilience is extraordinarily hard right now. Our hearts go out to those who lost loved ones, homes, and so much more-who are anxious about what the future holds and how we can support them.

I have great respect and admiration for all who are pulling together to provide relief and are thinking long term about how to ensure the people of Kwigillingok, Kipnuk, Nightmute, Newtok, Stebbins, Toksook, and communities all along the coast remain safe in their homes where they have lived for thousands of years.

Right now, the largest gathering of Alaska Natives is convening in Anchorage for their annual convention, much of which will focus on resilience and community support.

I share these observations not because Alaska's storms are more powerful or more devastating than storms in other states. Mr. President, your state of Tennessee has seen awful flooding recently as well. But it's a reminder to Congress of our role-many communities cannot provide this protection for themselves.

How do we build more resilient communities? And when disaster strikes, how can we support those affected in ways that are real and meaningful, especially in cultures where traditions differ from what we know in Washington, DC?

I'll end with comments from a recent press briefing by the Governor about the disaster's ongoing impact:

U.S. Coast Guard Captain Christopher Culpepper said, "If you think about previous instances of major inundations, such as Hurricane Katrina, that will start to paint the picture for what you might imagine what has happened along Western Alaska."

Our General Saxe said this may be the largest off-road National Guard response in about 45 years.

Our reality is hard and challenging. But one thing I know about the people in this region and my state is their resilience and determination. They are connected to their lands and want to maintain their cultural identity and connection to the places they've called home for thousands of years.

Finally, I want to acknowledge those engaged in rescue efforts- those pulling people from floating homes, flying overflights in miserable storms, and working on the ground. They did their job even when it was uncertain if they would be paid. That point of tension has been resolved now that the President announced the military and Coast Guard will be paid through the next pay period.

This is critically important. Our responsibility is to ensure they don't have to worry about pay when they're flying rescue missions-not thinking about groceries or rent.

We have work to do.

To those back home in Alaska working closely to care for those truly afraid about their future, know that we are all working with you, and our hearts are with you.

With that, Mr. President, I yield the floor.