Four years on, Alaska has been paid 15 percent of Merbok's $90.9 million

Nearly four years after Typhoon Merbok tore through western Alaska, only $13,626,938.08 of the $90,878,789.53 FEMA has obligated for the rebuild has actually been outlaid, about 15 percent. That figure is the federal disbursement on the award to the Alaska Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, which administers the grant and reimburses city, tribal and school district applicants; it shows how much of the disaster's public assistance total has moved through the federal system, not a village-by-village accounting of who has been paid. The grant's period of performance ends September 30, 2026, six weeks from now.

The award, 4672DRAKP00000001, was signed March 30, 2023, six months after the president declared FEMA-4672-DR on September 23, 2022, for the storm that hit September 15-20, 2022. The record surfaced this week because it was last modified August 14, and the most recent obligation on the disaster came August 5, 2026. Oddly, the federal spending record still describes the award as reimbursement for "emergency protective measures taken during the pandemic." It isn't pandemic money. The grant covers a 2022 storm, and 87.3 percent of its obligations are for permanent repair work. FEMA said in a July 2024 press release that it and the state had "approved $108.8 million to help Alaska communities rebuild infrastructure and public buildings damaged during Typhoon Merbok." Approved isn't the same as paid.

What the money buys is concrete: $37,989,538.52 across 29 roads and bridges projects, $17,935,776.13 in utilities, $11,065,192.84 in parks and recreational facilities, and $10,067,504.15 in water control facilities. Thirty applicants share it. The City of Hooper Bay holds the largest stake, $22,083,880.48 across 15 projects, followed by Nome at $10,722,945.35, Teller at $9,702,005.14, Stebbins at $8,392,630.73 and Elim at $8,050,648.27. The single biggest project is Point Road in Teller, also recorded as Winter Trail, at $9,002,642.25, last obligated in May 2024.

Of the 145 projects, 14 are closed out, worth $331,522.23 together, about one third of one percent of the grant. Fourteen more sit at various pending stages: environmental and historic preservation review, recipient final review, closeout completion, hazard mitigation completion, and award.

The newer disaster grant is tracking roughly where Merbok's was at the same age. FEMA-4893-DR, declared October 22, 2025 for storms, flooding and the remnants of Typhoon Halong, carries $5,568,625.29 obligated and $74,249.17 paid out, 1.3 percent. Of that obligated total, $4,937,557.98, or 88.7 percent, is booked to the State of Alaska itself, mostly non-congregate sheltering and emergency operations center costs. Seven local applicants hold the remaining $631,067.31:

• Napakiak: $460,982.82 for two debris removal projects still pending

• Alaska Village Electric Cooperative: $67,920.03

• Tuntutuliak Community Services Association: $37,356.89 for a generator repair

• Lower Kuskokwim School District: $32,506.06 for destroyed snow machines and a four-wheeler

• Bethel: $23,530.50 for a glycol line repair

• Native Village of Kivalina: $5,328.36

• Native Village of Umkumiut: $3,442.65 for carpenter's tools

Ten months in, nothing is obligated under Halong for roads, utilities, water control or parks, and none of its 13 projects has closed. The declaration also didn't activate the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program, and neither did the two Alaska declarations after it, breaking a run of 14 consecutive Alaska major disaster declarations that had.

Village and municipal recovery advocates say the bottleneck is execution, not authorization: the work gets approved on paper while procurement, engineering and closeout drag on and repairs stay unfinished. The state's account is that the pace reflects the difficulty of the work itself. Alaska's Merbok recovery strategy, which also directs $38,493,000 in Community Development Block Grant disaster-recovery funds toward the same rebuild, says longer timelines reflect the complexity of large, remote projects. Katherine Keith of the Department of Transportation and Public Facilities told the Alaska State Senate Transportation Committee on February 17 that inspectors were staying in villages and rotating out of Bethel, and that contractors face "significant reporting": "we go in and capture photos, and depending on the scope of work, we, we capture that with our own daily reports, um, all of which is required for FEMA."

Five Alaska disaster grants are open at once, stretching back to the 2018 earthquake, holding $301,987,204.22 obligated against $68,095,676.16 paid. All five expire September 30. On both storm declarations, the federal share is capped at 75 percent of eligible costs, leaving the rest for villages to find on their own.