FEMA is reopening a disaster management program, but some tribal leaders question its fit for Alaska A federal court ordered FEMA to reinstate the program after 20 states sued over its closure. Debris sits in piles in Kwigillingok after the remnants of Typhoon Halong brought widespread devastation to the region.The agency canceled the program last year, but a federal judge in the U.S. District of Massachusetts ruled that the program's cancellation was unlawful andDustin Evon is the tribal resilience coordinator for the village of Kwigillingok in Western Alaska, one of the communities hit hardestbefore it was canceled. Evon said it is still unclear how useful the new version of the program will be for Alaska villages like his. "There is good news, but we'll see how it goes," Evon said."A lot of these grants don't really fit our rural Alaska villages."Kwigillingok residents for years have been working to protect themselves from flooding and erosion and voted to relocate several years ago., to select a relocation site. Village leaders also applied for another grant to do a feasibility study for the site, but the program was canceled.FEMA leaders said the relaunched program will now focus on ready-to-build infrastructure projects, move money faster and shift responsibilities to the states. The agency also said it will eliminate phased projects, funding for hazard mitigation planning and technical assistance provisions – the very things that tribes like Kwigillingok applied for in the past. "When done correctly, mitigation activities save lives and reduce the cost of future disasters," FEMA's interim director Karen Evans said in a statement. Evon, with Kwigillingok, said the move away from phased projects is concerning. He said that in rural Alaska, materials often need to be barged in, and construction can take place over several seasons. The revised program doesn't seem to account for that, he said. "We might not be able to utilize it because, as you know, Alaska has four seasons, and we can only do summer-to-freeze-up projects," Evon said."And the project we were planning was going to be a multi-year, and in phases." Kipnuk is another Western Alaska village that was devastated by Halong. The village applied for technical assistance through the same FEMA program in the past but did not receive the award. Rayna Paul, the village's environmental director, said she hopes her village can apply to the reopened FEMA program for help with relocation. "I think it's an important program, and we need all the resources to relocate to a safer, elevated area," she said."Before a natural disaster hits, we need to be better prepared." Sheryl Musgrove, the climate justice program director at the Alaska Institute for Justice, has been working with leaders from Kipnuk and Kwigillingok. She said she hopes that Alaska villages can use the reopened program for relocation. "That funding is to build resilience communities," she said."And one way to be resilient is to relocate, whether it's just simple infrastructure or an entire community." She added that with many federal climate and environmental grant opportunities shut down, there will be more competition for the funding that's left. The application for the program is open until late July. The status of projects previously considered for the awards was not immediately clear.Alena Naiden covers rural and Indigenous communities for the Alaska Desk from partner station KNBA in Anchorage. Reach her at alena.naiden@knba.org or 907-793-3695.