An uncommon program helps children displaced by flooding that devastated Alaska villages
November 14, 2025
An immersion program that helps preserve an Alaska Native language has been a boon to children displaced by last month’s severe flooding in western Alaska. After Typhoon Halong devastated two Yup’ik villages along the Bering Sea last month, many residents were airlifted to Anchorage. Principal Darrell Berntsen welcomed them to his school, which offers a Yup’ik immersion program. The program has grown significantly with the arrival of displaced students. Those in the program spend half their day learning in Yup’ik and the other half in English. As the evacuees grapple with uprooted lives very different from the traditional ones they left, some of the children are finding a measure of familiarity in the immersion program.
