Household disaster aid accounted for eight of every 10 federal dollars sent to Alaska this week

Federal money reaching Alaska in the past week went overwhelmingly to households recovering from disaster. Of $4.21 million in awards recorded between Aug. 21 and Aug. 28, $3.41 million was direct aid to individuals and families through FEMA — 81 percent of everything the state received.

The rest was small by comparison. Highway research drew $717,400. Essential Air Service, the subsidy that keeps scheduled flights running to small communities, drew $33,400. Highway planning and construction drew $30,000. The FEMA program that rebuilds public infrastructure rather than paying households drew $19,900.

Alaskans are still filing. State individual assistance for the August fire at Tok closes Oct. 19, and assistance tied to the spring flooding closes Sept. 4.

Bryan Fisher, who directs the Alaska Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, told a state Senate committee in May that federal shutdowns had been "directly impacting" recovery from Typhoon Halong. The Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium has said the household aid program is built in a way that leaves subsistence losses uncounted.

USAspending records the money by where it was spent rather than by which disaster it followed, so a week's total can't be tied to a single event or traced to particular households. Disaster aid does not always lead the list. In late July, opioid treatment funding came in first at $1.97 million, just ahead of $1.96 million in household disaster aid.