Major airlift evacuations in Alaska after remnants of typhoon decimate villages

Alaska air national guard work with Alaska army national guard to evacuate approximately 300 displaced residents from Bethel on Wednesday. Photograph: Alaska National Guard

Authorities in Alaska are staging a major evacuation operation, relocating hundreds of people in one of the “most significant” airlifts in the state’s history, after a storm decimated two villages along the south-west coast over the weekend.

More than 1,500 people were displaced after the remnants of Typhoon Halong hit remote communities in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, battering the area with fierce winds, rain and record-breaking storm surge that caused some homes to float off their foundations.