ANCHORAGE — A massive storm that battered Alaska’s western coast with hurricane-strength winds and towering sea surges has passed the region in a much weaker state, leaving behind widespread damage and tales of human endurance.

So far, 37 communities have reported some form of damage, said Jeremy Zidek, spokesman for the state’s emergency management agency,

In one remote village that lost heat and power early Wednesday, about 20 vehicles lined up along an air strip and used their headlights to guide in a plane carrying repairmen.

ANCHORAGE — A disgruntled former employee opened fire in an Anchorage hotel and killed a manager, setting off a four-hour search that ended with the gunman’s arrest, authorities said early Sunday.

Kerry Fadely, 55, died in the shooting that occurred shortly after 6 p.m. Saturday at the Millennium Alaskan Hotel, police spokesman Lt. Dave Parker said.

Police locked down the hotel and carried out a room to room search. Police also surrounded the suspect’s residence.

ANCHORAGE —

Tony Tommy has lived in the tiny Alaska Native village of Newtok all of his 59 years, but the erosion there has gotten so bad, he can’t wait to see the flood-prone community dismantled and parts of it moved to higher ground nine miles across a vast, raging river.

Tommy, who works in the village store, remembers when the Ninglick River was far away and the Newtok River flowed deeply decades ago. Now the Ninglick is just minutes away, creeping ever closer to homes in the Yupik Eskimo community of 350 people.

ANCHORAGE — A rocket launched from an Alaska island Tuesday is carrying an experimental Navy satellite designed to provide safer combat communications.

The satellite will allow troops with radios to communicate without the need to position antennas in dangerous settings, said Peter Wegner, director of the Department of Defense’s Operationally Responsive Space Office.