A man took videos as his home floated away with him inside in Alaska’s storms

Typhoon Halong’s latest storms devastated western Alaska with such ferocity that they ripped Steven Anaver’s home from its foundation and propelled it across rough waters — with him inside.

Videos he shared Monday with The Associated Press chronicle the desperate scene as waters rose inside his home and floods raged outside.

The storms’ high winds and record water levels ravaged several small communities on October 12, displacing more than 2,000 people and requiring one of the largest airlift operations in Alaska’s history.

At least one person is dead and two others are missing.

Water began to rise rapidly on Saturday evening in the village of Kwigillingok, Anaver. It is one of the two hardest hit Yup’ik communities.

Anaver stared out the window into the complete darkness. The power had been out for a long time.

The storm was the worst he had seen. Around 3 a.m. Sunday, the water level surged, reaching his knees in about 10 minutes.

Shortly after, the house rocked, tilted and began to float.

Plastic bags, boxes of blankets, a leather boot and furniture cushions floated in videos Anaver took from inside. The walls swayed like those of a ship.

Outside, the dark waters lapped at the house a few feet from the window as the house moved away. Anaver heard loud bangs and an icy wind rushed through a hole that opened in a wall.

“It’s been a big challenge for my anxiety,” he said. “I kept calling my family.”

More booms shook the house as waves crushed it against other structures.

“Oh my God,” he wrote in a Facebook post around 5:30 a.m.

Anaver tried to take pictures to orient himself – the camera could see better than his eyes in the darkness – but it was useless until the moon appeared later that morning.

He could see a house he recognized. It had floated for about a mile.

A small hill with a plank sticking out had stopped Anaver’s house a few steps from the river, which had dragged other houses much further away.

After 7 a.m., when the water had receded sufficiently, two neighbors in waders came to help him get out.

Three days later, Anaver posted a video on Facebook of the hours spent in his own home.

“I was inches from death,” he wrote. “I escaped.”