A violent storm system spawned by Typhoon Halong tore through western Alaska early Wednesday, sweeping dozens of coastal houses into the ocean and leaving scores of residents temporarily displaced, local authorities and national broadcasters reported. The storm, which transitioned into an extratropical system as it moved north, brought battering surf, heavy rain and sustained high winds to remote communities that are sparsely protected by seawalls or elevated infrastructure.

Emergency officials said search-and-rescue teams focused on reaching isolated villages where whole blocks of low-lying housing were undermined by surge and erosion. “Our immediate priority is safety — getting people to shelter, accounting for the missing and restoring communications,” an Alaska emergency-management official told reporters. Road and barge links were disrupted, complicating deliveries of fuel, food and emergency supplies to towns that rely on seasonal shipping corridors.

NBC News and local agencies said the damage was concentrated in small coastal settlements in western Alaska, where traditional housing stock sits close to the shore. Officials described the loss of dozens of structures and widespread damage to docks and fish-processing plants; preliminary reports suggested that hundreds of residents were affected by property loss, displacement or power outages. Emergency shelters were established in regional hubs, and state authorities were coordinating with federal agencies to assess the need for a disaster declaration.

Economically, the blow is significant for a region whose livelihoods depend on fisheries, transport and seasonal tourism. Observers warned that the timing and scale of damage could disrupt salmon and crab harvests and push short-term price fluctuations in local seafood markets. Insurers and reinsurers have historically been underrepresented in this part of Alaska; as a result, much of the near-term rebuilding costs are likely to fall on state and federal funds and on households with limited resources.

Climate scientists and emergency planners say the event fits a broader pattern of more energetic storms pushing into higher latitudes as ocean temperatures rise. Arctic amplification — the faster warming of polar regions compared with the global average — has increased the energy available to systems that undergo extratropical transition, allowing them to carry damaging winds and moisture farther north than in past decades. “Events like this expose vulnerabilities in our coastal infrastructure,” said a climate analyst at a public research university, noting that flood defenses and building standards in many Alaska communities were designed for a very different climate regime.

Policy questions are already resurfacing about long-term adaptation: whether to rebuild in place, elevate structures, or pursue managed retreat in the most vulnerable locations. Federal programs such as FEMA’s hazard-mitigation grants and recent resilience funding from Congress provide pathways but often require local matching funds that resource-poor communities struggle to raise. Officials said immediate assessments would inform decisions on eligibility for federal aid and longer-term infrastructure investments.

As residents begin cleanup and recovery, state emergency managers cautioned that more intense and more frequent storms could make such episodes a recurring strain on Alaska’s budgets and on the social fabric of its coastal communities. For now, the priority remains accounting for those affected and restoring critical lifelines — an urgent test of resilience at the northern edge of a warming world.