JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — One of the most significant airlifts in Alaska history was underway Wednesday to move hundreds of people from coastal villages ravaged by high surf and strong winds from the remnants of Typhoon Halong last weekend, officials said.
The storm brought record water levels to two low-lying communities and washed away homes — some with people inside. At least one person was killed and two are missing. Makeshift shelters were quickly established and swelled to about 1,500 people, an extraordinary number in a sparsely populated region where communities are reachable by air or water.
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In this photo provided by the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service, Alaska Air National Guard rescue personnel conduct a search and rescue mission in Kipnuk, Alaska, on Monday, Oct. 13, 2025. (Defense Visual Information Distribution Service via AP)
In this photo provided by the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service, Alaska Air National Guard rescue personnel conduct a search and rescue mission in Kipnuk, Alaska, on Monday, Oct. 13, 2025. (Defense Visual Information Distribution Service via AP)
In this photo provided by Alaska National Guard, members of the Alaska National Guard arrive in Kotzebue, Alaska, Monday, Oct. 13, 2025, to support operations responding to the damage caused by Typhoon Halong. (Alaska National Guard via AP)
In this photo provided by Alaska National Guard, members of the Alaska National Guard prepare for departure from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, Monday, Oct. 13, 2025, during storm response operations after Typhoon Halong's landfall. (Capt. Balinda O'Neal/Alaska National Guard via AP)
In this photo provided by the U.S. Coast Guard, Kipnuk, Alaska, experiences coastal flooding, Sunday, Oct. 12, 2025. (U.S. Coast Guard via AP)
In this photo provided by the U.S. Coast Guard, Kipnuk, Alaska, experiences coastal flooding, Sunday, Oct. 12, 2025. (U.S. Coast Guard via AP)
The remoteness and the scale of the destruction created challenges for getting resources in place. Damage assessments have been trickling in as responders have shifted from initial search-and-rescue operations to trying to stabilize or restore basic services.
The communities of Kipnuk and Kwigillingok near the Bering Sea saw water levels more than 6 feet (1.8 meters) above the highest normal tide line. Leaders asked the state to evacuate the more than 1,000 residents in those villages, said Jeremy Zidek, a spokesperson with the state emergency management office.
Some homes cannot be reoccupied, even with emergency repairs, and others may not be livable by winter, said emergency management officials. Forecasters say rain and snow is possible in the region this weekend, with average temperatures soon below freezing.
Mark Roberts, the incident commander with the state emergency management agency, said the immediate focus was on “making sure people are safe, warm and cared for while we work with our partners to restore essential services.”
Meantime, restrooms were again working at the school in Kwigillingok, where about 350 people had sheltered overnight Tuesday, according to a state emergency management statement. “Damage to many homes is severe, and the community leadership is instructing residents not to reenter homes due to safety concerns,” it said.
About 300 evacuees were being brought to Anchorage on Wednesday, about 500 miles (805 kilometers) east of the battered coastline villages, according to the state Department of Military and Veterans Affairs. They were going to the Alaska Airlines Center, a sports and events complex with capacity for about 400, Zidek said.
Shelter space closer to home — in the southwest Alaska regional hub of Bethel — had been reaching capacity, officials said.
Zidek did not know how long the evacuation process would take and said authorities were looking for additional sheltering locations. The aim is to get people from congregate shelters into hotel rooms or dormitories, he said.
The crisis unfolding in southwest Alaska has drawn attention to Trump administration cuts to grants aimed at helping small, mostly Indigenous villages prepare for storms or mitigate disaster risks.
For example, a $20 million U.S. Environmental Protection Agency grant to Kipnuk, which was inundated by floodwaters, was terminated by the Trump administration, a move challenged by environmental groups. The grant was intended to protect to protect the boardwalk residents use to get around the community as well as 1,400 feet (430 meters) of river from erosion, according to a federal website that tracks government spending.
There was limited work on the project before the grant was ended. The village had purchased a bulldozer for shipment and briefly hired a bookkeeper, according to Public Rights Project, which represents Kipnuk.
The group said no single project was likely to prevent the recent flood. But work to remove abandoned fuel tanks and other material to prevent it from falling into the river might have been feasible during the 2025 construction season.
“What’s happening in Kipnuk shows the real cost of pulling back support that was already promised to front line communities,” said Jill Habig, CEO of Public Rights Project. “These grants were designed to help local governments prepare for and adapt to the growing effects of climate change. When that commitment is broken, it puts people’s safety, homes and futures at risk.”
This story has been corrected to remove a sentence that was not included in an emergency department statement.
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Bedayn reported from Denver. Associated Press writer Michael Phillis in Washington contributed.
In this photo provided by the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service, Alaska Air National Guard rescue personnel conduct a search and rescue mission in Kipnuk, Alaska, on Monday, Oct. 13, 2025. (Defense Visual Information Distribution Service via AP)
In this photo provided by the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service, Alaska Air National Guard rescue personnel conduct a search and rescue mission in Kipnuk, Alaska, on Monday, Oct. 13, 2025. (Defense Visual Information Distribution Service via AP)
In this photo provided by Alaska National Guard, members of the Alaska National Guard arrive in Kotzebue, Alaska, Monday, Oct. 13, 2025, to support operations responding to the damage caused by Typhoon Halong. (Alaska National Guard via AP)
In this photo provided by Alaska National Guard, members of the Alaska National Guard prepare for departure from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, Monday, Oct. 13, 2025, during storm response operations after Typhoon Halong's landfall. (Capt. Balinda O'Neal/Alaska National Guard via AP)
In this photo provided by the U.S. Coast Guard, Kipnuk, Alaska, experiences coastal flooding, Sunday, Oct. 12, 2025. (U.S. Coast Guard via AP)
In this photo provided by the U.S. Coast Guard, Kipnuk, Alaska, experiences coastal flooding, Sunday, Oct. 12, 2025. (U.S. Coast Guard via AP)
SYDNEY (AP) — Australian federal and state government leaders on Monday agreed to immediately overhaul already-tough national gun control laws after a mass shooting targeted a Hanukkah celebration on Sydney's Bondi Beach, leaving at least 15 people dead.
The action would include renegotiating the landmark national firearms agreement that virtually banned rapid-fire rifles after a lone gunman killed 35 people in Tasmania in 1996, galvanizing the country into action, the nine leaders' said in a statement after an emergency meeting.
The violence erupted at the end of a summer day when thousands had flocked to Bondi Beach, an icon of Australia’s cultural life. They included hundreds gathered for the “Chanukah by the Sea” event celebrating the start of the eight-day Hanukkah festival with food, face painting and a petting zoo.
At least 38 people, including two police officers, were being treated in hospitals after the massacre, when the two suspected shooters fired on the beachfront festivities. Those killed included a 10-year-old girl, a rabbi and a Holocaust survivor.
None of the dead or wounded victims have been formally named by the authorities. Identities of those killed, who ranged in age from 10 to 87, began to emerge in news reports Monday.
Among them was Rabbi Eli Schlanger, assistant rabbi at Chabad of Bondi and an organizer of the family Hanukkah event that was targeted, according to Chabad, an Orthodox Jewish movement that runs outreach worldwide and sponsors events during major Jewish holidays.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry confirmed the death of an Israeli citizen, but gave no further details. French President Emmanuel Macron said a French citizen, identified as Dan Elkayam, was among those killed.
Larisa Kleytman told reporters outside St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney that her husband, Alexander Kleytman, was among the dead. The couple were both Holocaust survivors, according to The Australian newspaper.
Police shot the two suspected shooters, a father and son. The 50-year-old father died at the scene. His 24-year-old son remained in a coma in hospital on Monday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said.
Police won't reveal their names.
Albanese confirmed that Australia’s main domestic spy agency, the Australian Security Intelligence Agency, had investigated the son for six months in 2019.
Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported that ASIO had examined the son’s ties to a Sydney-based Islamic State group cell. Albanese did not describe the associates, but said ASIO was interested in them rather than the son.
“He was examined on the basis of being associated with others and the assessment was made that there was no indication of any ongoing threat or threat of him engaging in violence,” Albanese said.
Albanese had proposed new gun restrictions, including limiting the number of guns a licensed owner can obtain and reviewing existing licenses over time.
His proposals were announced after the authorities revealed that the older suspected gunman had held a gun license for a decade and amassed his six guns legally.
“The government is prepared to take whatever action is necessary. Included in that is the need for tougher gun laws,” Albanese said.
The horror at Australia’s most popular beach was the deadliest shooting in almost three decades since the 1996 Port Arthur massacre. The removal of rapid-fire rifles has markedly reduced the death tolls from such acts of violence since then.
Albanese called the Bondi massacre an act of antisemitic terrorism that struck at the heart of the nation.
Government leaders on Monday proposed restricting gun ownership to Australian citizens, a measure that would have excluded the older suspect, who came to Australia in 1998 on a student visa and became a permanent resident after marrying a local woman. Officials wouldn’t confirm what country he had migrated from.
His son, who doesn't have a gun license, is an Australian-born citizen.
The government leaders also proposed the “additional use of criminal intelligence” in deciding who was eligible for a gun license. That could mean the son’s suspicious associates could disqualify the father from owning a gun.
Chris Minns, premier of New South Wales where Sydney is the state capital, said his state's gun laws would change, but he could not yet detail how.
“It means introducing a bill to Parliament to — I mean to be really blunt — make it more difficult to get these horrifying weapons that have no practical use in our community,” Minns said.
“If you’re not a farmer, you’re not involved in agriculture, why do you need these massive weapons that put the public in danger and make life dangerous and difficult for New South Wales Police?” Minns asked.
Meanwhile, the massacre provoked questions about whether Albanese and his government had done enough to curb rising antisemitism. Jewish leaders and the massacre’s survivors expressed fear and fury as they questioned why the men hadn’t been detected before they opened fire.
“There’s been a heap of inaction,” said Lawrence Stand, a Sydney man who raced to a bar mitzvah celebration in Bondi when the violence erupted to find his 12-year-old daughter.
“I think the federal government has made a number of missteps on antisemitism,” Alex Ryvchin, spokesperson for the Australian Council of Executive Jewry, told reporters gathered on Monday near the site of the massacre. “I think when an attack such as what we saw yesterday takes place, the paramount and fundamental duty of government is the protection of its citizens, so there’s been an immense failure.”
On Monday, hundreds arrived near the scene to lay flowers at a growing pile of floral tributes. There were words of pride, too, for a man who was captured on video appearing to tackle and disarm one gunman, before pointing the man’s weapon at him, then setting the gun on the ground.
The man was identified by Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke as Ahmed al Ahmed. The 42-year-old fruit shop owner and father of two was shot in the shoulder by the other gunman and survived.
Al Ahmed, an Australian citizen who migrated from Syria in 2006, underwent surgery on Monday, his family said.
“Ahmed is a real-life hero. Last night, his incredible bravery no doubt saved countless lives when he disarmed a terrorist at enormous personal risk,” Minns posted on social media with a photo of the premier sitting at the end of al Ahmed’s hospital bed.
Al Admed's parents, who moved to Australia in recent months, said their son had a background in the Syrian security forces.
“My son has always been brave. He helps people. He’s like that,” his mother, Malakeh Hasan al Ahmed, told ABC through an interpreter.
Australia, a country of 28 million people, is home to about 117,000 Jews, according to official figures. Over the past year, the country was rocked by antisemitic attacks in Sydney and Melbourne. Synagogues and cars were torched, businesses and homes graffitied and Jews attacked in those cities, where 85% of the nation’s Jewish population lives.
The Australian government has enacted various measures to counter a surge in antisemitism since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and Israel launched a war on Hamas in Gaza in response.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that he warned Australia’s leaders months ago about the dangers of failing to take action against antisemitism. He claimed Australia’s decision, in line with scores of other countries, to recognize a Palestinian state “pours fuel on the antisemitic fire.”
Albanese in August blamed Iran for two of the previous attacks and cut diplomatic ties to Tehran. Authorities have not suggested Iran was linked to Sunday’s massacre.
Graham-McLay reported from Wellington, New Zealand and McGuirk from Melbourne, Australia.
Governor General Sam Mostyn places flowers at a tribute to shooting victims outside the Bondi Pavilion at Sydney's Bondi Beach, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025, a day after a shooting. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)
Governor General Sam Mostyn, left, greets MP, Allegra Spender, at a gathering at a flower memorial to shooting victims outside the Bondi Pavilion at Sydney's Bondi Beach, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025, a day after a shooting. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)
A woman is escorted from a flower memorial outside the Bondi Pavilion at Sydney's Bondi Beach, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025, a day after a shooting. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)
A woman kneels and prays at a flower memorial to shooting victims outside the Bondi Pavilion at Sydney's Bondi Beach, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025, a day after a shooting. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)
A couple lay flowers at a tribute to shooting victims outside the Bondi Pavilion at Sydney's Bondi Beach, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025, a day after a shooting. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)
