Entertainment

Kivalina readied inland relocation as coastal erosion threatened the Arctic village

Kivalina faces inland move as coastal erosion and decades of mine pollution hit the Iñupiaq community.

Yes Theory spent 72 hours in Kivalina, a village on a narrow strip of land above the Arctic Circle in northwest Alaska. The travel channel slept on the floor of the local school after the community agreed to host them; there are no hotels or restaurants in town.

Residents told the crew the village may not exist much longer. Erosion intensified around 1989 when sandbags washed away, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers set 2025 as the deadline to move. In 2026 the community is still preparing to relocate about seven miles inland to higher ground known as K-Hill, where a new school and other infrastructure are already in place.

Warmer Arctic winters have left the coast without protective sea ice for longer stretches, and storms have taken dozens of feet of shoreline. A seawall and a 2020 road and bridge to the mainland bought time, but Janet, a water quality technician in town, said everyone still has to get out. She and others have also fought pollution from the Red Dog zinc and lead mine, 66 miles inland, where spills have contaminated streams the village relies on for fish and drinking water.

During the visit a storm cancelled a planned ocean fishing trip and raised the chance of a village evacuation to the school. Jerry, a local fisherman, took Yes Theory upriver instead, where Stefan caught his first salmon. Back in town, Reppie’s family prepared the catch while wind picked up and water crept toward the shoreline.

Janet’s brother Cali and others in the family said they wanted to stay by the ocean rather than move to marshier ground near the new school site. A man who runs Kivalina’s power plant, born on the island in 1973, said October used to freeze solid and now does not. Yes Theory left on the first flight out after the weather broke; residents who call the village home do not have that option when the next storm hits.

Source video: "we have to leave" - 72 hours in the US town about to disappear