News at 5 - October 11, 2025

I would dare say, you know, dozens upon dozens of people are involved at this point. Alaska's news source is tracking Hulong. The storm headed to Western Alaska as DOT is preparing to the impact. And high winds and high surf are causing heavy flooding along the western coastline with the most dangerous impacts moving in by tomorrow morning. Plus, as we are more than a week into the government shutdown and Alaskan Senator sits down with us to talk about what's happening and preparing to help your children if they're ever in an active shooter situation in their school. A major drill is run inside Iditarod Elementary. You're watching Alaska's News Source. We are tracking remnants of former typhoon along as the storm heads toward western Alaska. It's expected to bring damage with it. Today, the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities is being proactive and has crews out in many spots on the western coast preparing for the strong storm. What oftentimes will happen is that a storm will bring in a lot of debris and it will cover a runway, for example, with, you know, stumps and rocks and things like that. So if we have our equipment ready to go on our people, you know, ready to go, we can get that airport cleared right away and then we can bring in supplies. The department is working with other agencies. They're putting rock and sand in areas. There's concern for erosion and flooding. She talked about the importance of having runways operable after storms. It's really serious because our airports are lifelines. They can help get people in and out, you know, regarding the medical issues, for example, food and supplies, everything that a community needs on a regular basis. You know, much of it comes in via airplane. We have a team headed to Kristi Noem to bring us the latest details firsthand once the storm hits. And shelters are being set up in many places along the western coast. Some of them include Hooper Bay School, the school in Koyuk, the nest shelter in Kristi Noem, and the tribal building in Gullivan. And as the storm is expected to make a major impact and cause damage in Western Alaska, Bailey, joins us now to explain the flooding potential. But first, Bailey, you're showing us the storm's track. Yeah, so so far, this storm is moving through the allusions right now, and it's going to make landfall and... cause that more devastating destruction towards the western coastline by tomorrow morning. And just looking right now at our graphics, you're going to notice it's already moving past the Aleutian Islands. And then by tomorrow or by tonight overnight, it's going to start to reach into that Yukon Delta. And then it's going to span into the Seward Peninsula by very early tomorrow morning. And that adds on to the danger of the storm because it's happening so early. But you're going to notice it also adds into a wintery mix along that area.

So not only are you getting flooding and high winds, you're getting a mix of snow and rain. And then that's also going to span into the north slope, bringing in a winter weather advisory across the Brooks range. So it's bringing in a lot of damage in terms of winds, flooding. That coastal flooding is really just the biggest thing that we're trying to look out for. And that storm surge is also expected going into tomorrow. So looking at these water levels, this is going to be the water levels added on to the highest tide. So in Katsubu, three to seven feet of water. added on top of that highest tide. So that just shows how dangerous that flooding is going to be. And of course, that storm surge is one of the most dangerous parts of a storm like this. I mean, this is what you see in hurricanes that causes so much devastation. And this added with those winds. It's just really going to add on to all of that damage that we're going to see. So make sure that you're staying prepared. And if you haven't already started to prepare, your window is closing by tonight. You need to make sure that your family is okay. You need to make sure you have everything that you need. But also, like Michaela had mentioned earlier, you need to be aware of where those shelters are. Because if you live along the coastline or waterfront, you need to make sure that you're moving into the shelter. Because staying at home with this storm surge is not something that you can really handle very well. So you need to be ready for that as well as preparing. for these wind gusts because they're really going to start moving in. You can already see them moving in right now, but it's going to get worse moving into tomorrow. Michaela? Senator Dan Sullivan was in the studio today. He commented on the impending storm as well as the ongoing government shutdown. Here's part of what he had to say. Well, first off, you know, we've been praying for them and it's, I'm glad you raise that, Michaela, as our first topic because You know, we want to make sure everybody in the Northwest Arctic Borough, Katsabu region is safe. So I've been in touch with the leaders of that community, the mayor of the borough, the mayor of Katsabu. My staff and I have been working closely with them. By the way, I think they've done a great job. Not just the elected officials, but the tribe, the tribes, the ANCs, you know, they ordered an evacuation. early before this last storm hit. There's a lot of lessons learned. And tell us where the government shutdown is right now. Well, look, I'm working every single day to get the government open. This is the most unavoidable, easy to, I mean, not easy, but this shutdown should not happen. I'm referring to it as the Chuck Schumer shutdown. A lot of Democrat senators. are frustrated, not with us, not with President Trump, with their leader, minority leader, Chuck Schumer. This shouldn't have happened. I think he's putting his own personal politics over the interest of federal workers, of our military. You know, Chuck Schumer just recently said, hey, this shut every day this shutdown is working for us. That was a quote. To me, that's a shocking statement. Like, who's us? Democratic Party, Democratic senators. I guarantee I know a lot of Democratic senators who are upset about this shutdown. So what we need to do is just pass what's called a continuing resolution, a clean continuing resolution. That is a bill that just continues to fund the government at current levels. Whenever you have kind of a shutdown situation, that's what we almost always do.

been hearing mother it was at i diderot elementary in wassilla the drill included law enforcement agents emergency response crews like fire and ems and school administrators wassila's chief of police says the services across the valley haven't done a large-scale multi-agency response exercise I think a lot of it's going to be law enforcement. It's going to learn what EMS is going to do. It's going to learn what the school districts is going to do. And vice versa, that EMS in the school district and the hospital and all these other entities that we have to work with are going to understand from the law enforcement aspect. School districts often run drills throughout the year, but active shooter drills are difficult to run. So for the school district, the chance to simulate experience with volunteers from the district can help them understand what needs to be done in these chaotic moments. We have individuals who have agreed to participate on a Saturday to really learn and feel what like, feel what this is like in real life. And so we just appreciate people's willingness to give up their time on a Saturday and learn a little bit more about this scenario so that we can share that experience with all of our administrators, all of our staff. feel more prepared. The exercise concluded high school students and their parents also simulating the events with some parents being told to act how they would in the event the tragedy ever occurred. Thanks for listening. Click subscribe so you can get the latest podcast from Alaska's News Source Automatically. And stay up to date with breaking news and in-depth reporting available for free 24-7 with the Alaska's News Source app.