The other Alaska airlift: Volunteers save dogs from a flooded Alaska village, 1 tiny plane at a time

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This image made from a video provided by Jesslyn Elliott shows dogs being released from a crate in Bethel, Alaska, on Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2025, after being evacuated by plane from the village of Kipnuk, Alaska. (Jesslyn Elliott via AP)

SEATTLE – The special delivery arrived in a plastic storage box after a chartered flight in bouncy single-propeller plane. Veterinarian Susan Shaffer Sookram snipped the zip ties securing the lid and greeted the cargo: four dogs, one with a gray collar bearing its name, Happy.

“What a scary ride!" she said. “You made it!”

As officials in Alaska work around the clock on one of the most significant airlift operations in state history — evacuating more than 1,000 people from remote, flood-battered villages on the coast of the Bering Sea — another r