Typhoon Merbok

Floor Speech

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Mr. SULLIVAN. Madam President, I want to talk about one of the strongest storms in many, many years to hit my State. It was called Typhoon Merbok, and it hit western Alaska late last week and into the weekend. It brought gale-force winds, massive flooding, and loss of power, water, and communications. It has wreaked havoc.

I have just a few photos here. You see a house literally floating away into the ocean; whole communities completely flooded; a giant wave system--again, communities completely flooded in western Alaska.

This is an area of our State dotted with dozens of small villages, nearly all of them, the majority, Alaska Native communities. Roughly about 21,000 people live in these communities in western Alaska with a coastline of roughly 1,300 miles. That is just one little, small part of my State, but that is just about as many miles of all the Florida coastline combined just here in western Alaska. They got hammered.

There are very, very few roads. Alaska has over 200 communities that are not connected by any roads at all, and so it presents many challenges in terms of relief. Unfortunately, the very small number of roads that we have, many were washed away in these communities. The storm knocked out lines of communication, prompted evacuations, and wrenched homes from their foundations, as I mentioned, floating in the water.

The preliminary assessment shows very significant damage to bridges, roads, water treatment plants, bulk fuel tanks, seawalls, breakwaters, airstrips--if you don't have a road, every one of these small communities has an airport, a tiny little airport--generators, powerplants. This was a devastating storm.

But I am proud to say my fellow Alaskans pulled together--the Native communities in particular, as they do so often--to make sure that all residents and particularly the most vulnerable, the elderly in particular, were out of harm's way when this storm came pounding ashore in western Alaska.

Our State and local government emergency management teams, the Alaska National Guard, the Coast Guard, and our first responders have also been working day and night to ensure that communities are safe and that utility services and major infrastructure are becoming operational as soon as possible, but it is still a real challenge.

I will say from the Federal Government's perspective, FEMA has done a good job thus far--a really good job. They immediately got teams on the ground and are working to evaluate the damage. The head of FEMA, whom I spoke to shortly after the storm hit, is on her way to Alaska. The Secretary of Homeland Security just called me today on their focus on this. The Region 10 FEMA Director--which covers Alaska--is also on the ground there.

Thankfully, thank God there have been no reports of death or serious injury, and it is in part because of the resilience of the people in Alaska and the preparation.

Further, donations of food, water, clothes, and other essentials from businesses and nonprofits and just generous individuals throughout Alaska have been pouring in to this community. We are so grateful for all the help that has come.

Even though most Americans are very unaware of this, this was a devastating storm.

Let me talk a little bit about some of these wonderful communities that were hit by the storm. All of these communities--I have spent a lot of time in western Alaska. They are amazing people with an incredible generosity of spirit and thriving Alaska Native cultures. But these are some of the poorest communities in America--the poorest communities in America. Like I said, almost none of them have roads. Several of them do not have any water or sewer--running water or flush toilets. American citizens.

You know, I get a little frustrated in this body whenever there is a lower 48 community that has a problem with drinking water--the latest in Jackson, MS, and Detroit, MI. There is all this money, and they say: Hey, let's fix that aging infrastructure. I get it. That is important. But what I always say is, why don't we fix communities like mine that have no infrastructure, no water and sewer, no flush toilets, no access to the internet, housing where multiple generations are often crammed together?

And here is the thing. These are some of the most amazing people on the planet, and as Americans, they are some of the most patriotic people in the whole country. I always like to brag about Alaska, where there are more veterans per capita than any State in the country. But the Alaska Native people serve at higher rates in the U.S. military than any other ethnic group in America. This is what I call special patriotism. When you go to these small communities, everyone there is a veteran. It really warms your heart as an American.

So we need to help these communities, and we are going to do that. The Senate is going to do that; the Federal Government is going to do that; and the State of Alaska is going to do that.

I do want to make one mention of one issue that is important to me. It is an issue just to fairness, and I am just putting down a marker to make sure we have fairness as it relates to my constituents in this very significant storm that we need help with.

The majority leader was here on the floor recently talking about the impact that Hurricane Fiona was having on Puerto Rico, and we are all thinking about Puerto Rico as well. We want to make sure they are all safe, and that is something we need to be focused on in the Federal Government, in the U.S. Senate.

Now, normally, the Federal Government pays for 75 percent of the costs of emergency medical care, disaster response, food distribution when those requests are made.

Our Governor just recently declared a Federal disaster for this part of Alaska. The Alaska delegation sent a letter to the President urging him to immediately approve this Federal disaster declaration for Alaska. When this happens, as I mentioned, the Federal Government usually pays 75 percent; others are responsible back home for 25 percent. Sometimes it is even 90 percent and 10 percent.

As I mentioned, the majority leader recently requested, in a floor speech on the Senate floor--and I am fine with the speech--that the FEMA Federal Government pay 100 percent of the costs in Puerto Rico. OK. If FEMA wants to do that, if that is going to happen at the request of the majority leader, here is what else has to happen: Then FEMA must pay 100 percent of the costs in western Alaska, OK. That is a no- brainer. One hundred percent of the costs from FEMA in Puerto Rico, then the great people in western Alaska are going to get 100 percent of the costs paid for as well.

I would like to submit that for the Record.

Administrator Deanne Criswell, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Washington, DC.

Dear Administrator Criswell: We write to urge your administrative approval of Governor Dunleavy's request to waive the State's cost share for federal individual and public assistance for recovery efforts in Western Alaska following the onslaught of Typhoon Merbok.

As your Region X team is aware, conditions prior to the storm in impacted rural communities were already difficult. Several Alaskan communities do not have running water or sewer systems. Where they do exist, it is common for sewer systems to be constructed above ground which further exposes flooded communities to the potential release of raw sewage. These communities are also experiencing high levels of unemployment and poverty, and it is likely that many homes are not insured against the losses experienced. Additionally. the cost of providing immediate temporary housing will impede the finances available for housing construction.

Necessary cleanup efforts have begun, and Alaskan efforts and spirit in the face of trials is herculean as ever. However, this cost is too great to cover with currently available resources.

Preliminary assessments across more than a thousand miles of Western Alaska coastline include damage to bridges and roads, water treatment plants, homes, bulk fuel tanks, seawalls, breakwaters, berms, airstrips, generators, and power plants. On September 20. 2022, Governor Mike Dunleavy requested a federal disaster declaration. We sent a letter that same evening requesting the President expeditiously approve that request.

On September 19, 2022 Senator Schumer delivered a speech on the Senate floor in which he stated that he spoke with you and ``urge[d] that [FEMA] be ready to approve a temporary 100% federal cost share for all emergency protective services that Puerto Rico conducts in the coming days.'' As you consider requests for storm recovery funding and cost shares across the nation, including for Puerto Rico in Region 2, we expect you to deliver an equitable decision for Alaska. Sincerely, Lisa Murkowski,

United States Senator. Dan Sullivan,

United States Senator. Mary Sattler Peltola,

Representative for All Alaska.

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Mr. SULLIVAN. So, Madam President, one of the things that I have always done in my job here in the U.S. Senate is, whenever there is a bill dealing with disaster relief, regardless of what part of the country it is, I always vote for it. The reason I do that is because I come from a State that has earthquakes, that has wildfires, that has typhoons, that has a lot of cold weather. We are tough in Alaska, but every now and then, we are going to need Federal help as well, and now is the time we do.

So we are all going to work together here in the Senate, whether it is Puerto Rico or Kentucky or western Alaska, where there have been a lot of recent natural disasters. We will work together.

I just want to make sure my constituents know: We got your back here in DC. We thank you for your resiliency, toughness, and everybody coming together. We will make sure that, whatever the results are in any of these other natural disasters, that Alaska is going to get the same result as well.

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