Did you know that Alaska was just devastated by Typhoon Halong? I wouldn’t be surprised if you didn’t hear about it. As storms ripped through western Alaska, it displaced many, and some people are still missing. Luckily, there are plenty of good citizens capable of sounding the alarm. A climate advisor is now talking about what happened and why so many people don’t even know it’s happening right under our noses.
On TikTok, climate advisor Charitie Ropati brought attention to Halong in her video. “Typhoon Halong has caused massive flooding. Homes have been torn from their foundations and some are even floating miles down the river or out into the ocean,” she says. Either families are being entirely displaced or, worse, missing entirely.
The real problem, though, is that the typhoon isn’t even being talked about much on major outlets. “Right now, it’s only local media covering these stories or us community members,” according to Charitie. Why isn’t this event getting the national and even international attention that it deserves? Char says the reason why these storms “hit so hard” is due to our history here in America.
She discusses the fact that Native people were forced to settle into certain areas because the government wanted the children to attend Alaskan schools. She says that “settler colonialism forced us to live on small flood-prone patches of land that were never meant for permanent settlement.”
Now, due to global warming, entire communities are being wiped out before our very eyes. Char says this is “climate injustice” and she isn’t wrong. She wants more people across the world to pay attention to what’s happening. Catastrophic weather events will continue to happen, and in the end, it’s the families that suffer.
“Unfortunately, the Republican government doesn’t believe in climate change or global warming,” one commenter pointed out.
Another person said, “My first time hearing about flooding in Alaska. I think everyone forgets you are part of America.”
FEMA has allegedly started working with state officials in Alaska. They’re working with incident management teams as well as search-and-rescue for the handful of missing citizens caused by the storm. It’s just so shocking that such a major event is so quiet, but what makes sense these days?
