"Mertarvik"

The Newtok-to-Mertarvik transformation, decades in the making, is the most advanced of what is expected to be several relocations prompted by climate change.

The entire community was without electricity for more than three days.

Six villages will get piped water for the first time.

“We have flooding everywhere, every year and, you know — we don’t have sanitation, we don’t have plumbing, we don’t have running water,” Carolyn George said to a crowd of hundreds.

The Biden administration gave $75 million in aid to the three communities in Alaska and Washington. Eight other Tribal communities received an additional $40 million.

The most recent storm brought waves so fierce, the water claimed roughly half of land between the school and the river.

Nobody has moved from Newtok to Mertarvik since 2019, when about a third of the community’s approximately 350 residents migrated over. 

For over a year, residents in Mertarvik have survived without a commercial airport. That has meant spotty access to groceries and dangerous delays accessing medical care.

With an absentee vote count that begins later than other states, combined with a record-high number of absentee votes due to COVID-19, the long wait in Alaska may be particularly noticeable this year.

Meyer said there are four precincts that still don’t have voting officials for Election Day: Sleetmute, Clark’s Point, Wainwright and Deering.