Four years after Merbok, Alaska is hiring a contractor to start rebuilding homes

Four years after Typhoon Merbok hit western Alaska, the state has opened bidding on the contract that will run home rebuilding for survivors. The work is to be finished by the end of 2029.

The Division of Community and Regional Affairs published the solicitation Sept. 14. It budgets $2.5 million for a contractor to design and run a homeowner recovery program — intake, case management, inspections, scopes of work and oversight of repairs and reconstruction — for at least 77 housing units damaged by the September 2022 storm. Proposals are due at 5 pm Oct. 12.

Nothing in the program exists yet. The state's published contract report lists one disaster recovery contract to date: $800,000 to Agnew::Beck for a needs assessment and action plan, executed in March 2025. No intake, case management or construction has been contracted. HUD allocated Alaska $38.5 million for the disaster in May 2023.

The solicitation also describes the program's geography in a way the state's own plan does not.

HUD's disaster recovery money comes with a rule: at least 80 percent must go to the areas HUD itself identifies as most impacted, using FEMA damage data. The state can add other areas, but they share the remaining 20 percent. For Merbok, HUD identified three regions — Bering Strait, Kashunamiut and Lower Yukon. The state added three more to the smaller pot: Lower Kuskokwim, Yupiit and the Pribilof Islands. The plan sends about $12.3 million of the homeowner program to the HUD areas and $3.1 million to the state-added ones.

The bid notice lists Lower Kuskokwim among the HUD-designated areas. It isn't one. The same sentence correctly labels the Pribilofs as state-designated, and it leaves Yupiit out entirely, though the plan funds Yupiit from the same 20 percent.

The distinction is a funding cap, not a name. A region can move from the state's pot to HUD's only if the state formally requests it with supporting data. Alaska News reported Sept. 19 that the state declined to make that request for Lower Kuskokwim after its own survey found other regions were hit harder. The bid notice calling Lower Kuskokwim HUD-designated was published five days before that.

Assistance to any one household is capped at $200,000, the 2022 Small Business Administration disaster home loan limit. The division says it expects to set up a separate legal services program to help applicants meet program requirements.