Extreme weather events like Typhoon Merbok are becoming more common, and many Alaska communities are wondering about the future.

The remnants of Typhoon Merbok not only battered Alaska’s west coast in September, the storm also left behind a few treasures in its wake.

The powerful remnants of Typhoon Merbok pounded Alaska’s western coast on Sept. 17, 2022, pushing homes off their foundations and tearing apart protective berms as water flooded communities. Storms aren’t unusual here, but Merbok built up over unusually warm water. Its waves reached 50 feet over the Bering Sea, and its storm surge sent water levels into communities at near record highs along with near hurricane-force winds.

The aftermath of Typhoon Merbok left fuel tanks floating and home flooded, but locals also saw an opportunity.

People in Newtok have been without power for almost three weeks. Families without personal generators have seen their freezers thaw out, and watched a summer’s worth of subsistence harvest go to waste.

Shaktoolik, a village in Alaska, is still waiting for aid from FEMA to rebuild a protective berm that was destroyed by a typhoon, leaving the community vulnerable to storms and erosion.