Calista pays to extend local Typhoon Halong recovery jobs after state funding runs out

Calista Corporation's board committed company money to keep local hire going on Typhoon Halong recovery after state funding ran out this fall, Calista President and CEO Andrew Guy wrote in a message published Thursday.

The money let local hire in storm-damaged communities continue longer than it otherwise would have, Guy wrote. Calista Brice subsidiaries employed nearly 100 community members, including 81 Calista shareholders and descendants. They removed debris, repaired boardwalks and did electrical, plumbing and mechanical work.

Together those local hires worked nearly 62,000 hours and earned more than $4.3 million in wages.

The figures come from Calista's own account in Storyknife, its shareholder newsletter. Guy did not say how much the board committed or how long the extended work will run.

The remnants of the typhoon hit western Alaska Oct. 11 and 12, 2025, according to an earlier Calista publication. In it, a Brice Inc. project manager described Kipnuk as the hardest hit village and said Kwigillingok also lost many homes, community buildings and critical infrastructure.

By early July, more than 12,000 feet of Kipnuk's boardwalk had been restored, though federal funding delays were slowing the work. As of late October, FEMA had obligated just over $9 million in public assistance for Halong recovery, the largest share for debris removal in Napakiak and Tununak.

Guy wrote that Calista is guided by the affected tribes. Kipnuk and Kwigillingok tribal staff still work out of Calista's Anchorage building.

"This disaster is deeply personal to Calista," Guy wrote. Many of the company's friends, family members and coworkers are storm survivors, he said.

Guy also called for a change in how recovery money is spent. "Disaster funding should not focus on repairing areas that are becoming uninhabitable," he wrote. He said Congress and federal agencies must support village relocation and other resiliency efforts. Guy testified in May before the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs.

That same month, the Alaska Senate unanimously backed relocating Kipnuk and Kwigillingok, though the resolution did not pay for the move.