Alaska Is Underwater and No One’s Talking About It
If you think the news cycle is bad, wait till you hear what it’s not telling you.
North West Alaska is being evacuated right now. Not “recommended to stay indoors.” Not “stock up on essentials.” Evacuated. As in—grab your kids, whatever you can carry, and run.
Why? Massive flooding. After a brutal typhoon, entire Indigenous villages have been wiped off the map. Families are stranded. Homes are gone. The land—unrecognizable.
And yet? Crickets. No headlines. No “breaking news” banners. No wall-to-wall coverage.
But hey, let’s make sure we all know which celebrity wore what at the red carpet last night, right?
The disaster nobody’s covering
This isn’t just “bad weather.” It’s one of the most devastating climate disasters Alaska has ever seen.
Whole communities—especially Indigenous Alaskans—have been uprooted. People who’ve lived on this land for generations now have nothing to return to. Villages like Newtok, Golovin, and Shaktoolik (and dozens of others) are either underwater or structurally unsafe.
And because of the extreme damage, even FEMA and the Red Cross can’t get to certain areas. Let that sink in: the national disaster response systems can’t access some of the worst-hit zones.
So guess who’s stepping up?
Neighbors. Volunteers. Tribal leaders. Everyday people with boats and snowmobiles and whatever else they can scrape together. People who don’t have billion-dollar budgets or federal aid but are showing up anyway.
Where the hell is the National Guard?
This is where they should be.
Not sitting on standby. Not patrolling protests. Not waiting for a green light that’s clearly overdue.
They should be on the ground, helping evacuate families, deliver food and medical care, and rebuild what little infrastructure remains.
If this were a major city? We’d already have a coordinated response and a CNN helicopter doing hourly updates. But because it’s remote, rural, and Indigenous? Apparently, it doesn’t hit the “newsworthy” algorithm.
And I’m tired of pretending that’s okay.
This isn’t new—but it is getting worse
Indigenous communities in Alaska have been fighting rising waters, melting permafrost, and disappearing shorelines for years. Climate change isn’t hypothetical up there—it’s at the front door.
And now, it’s barged in without knocking.
We’re talking about entire cultures at risk of erasure. Not just homes or roads—but languages, traditions, elders. And when these places vanish, we lose stories, histories, people.
The fact that we have to yell into the void just to get attention on it? That’s the real disaster.
What can you do right now?
Honestly, don’t wait for the media to care. Start here:
- Donate directly to Alaska Native organizations and tribal relief funds (I’m compiling a few if you need a list).
- Use your voice—even if it feels small. Share what’s happening. Talk about it. Push the story.
- Call your reps. Ask why the National Guard isn’t being deployed. Ask what emergency measures are being taken.
- Remember this. When climate disasters strike, it’s the most remote and least resourced who pay the highest price. Every time.
This isn’t a trending topic. It’s a slow-burn collapse of entire communities. And the clock’s already run out for some of them.
Let’s not pretend we didn’t see it coming—or that we didn’t have a choice to do something.
Written by Will Walker | @WNWalker
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