January 12, 2005
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Okay, I don’t have it bad here at all.
A
Kaktovik family opened their door to find a thin layer of snow, driven
by high winds, had packed against the door, taking its shape. The hole
in the middle is the only clear spot.
(Photo by RICHARD HOLSCHEN)Yesterday both Greyfox (down the valley in Wasilla where the temps are ten to twenty degrees warmer than here) and LuckyStars
(in Kansas where they’ve been having ice storms) called my attention to
the plight of the 300 people in the remote village of Kaktovik.
Since Saturday, cold, snow and hurricane force winds have been making
life miserable and hazardous for them.Blowing snow blew down power lines on Saturday. Circuit breakers
tripped and transformers burned out. Some of those who didn’t
have backup generators at home moved into the school. Then the
wind and blowing snow killed the school’s generator. Everyone in
the village is running low on fuel. Sixty-five people moved into
the Borough maintenance shed, one of only two public buidings with
lights and heat.The Air National Guard managed to land a Pave Hawk helicopter with two
electric linemen and 600 pounds of tools and supplies, but a C-130
cargo plane with nine more linemen and some spare transformers couldn’t
land because of zero visibility. The equipment was dropped off in
Deadhorse, where it’s waiting for transport to Kaktovik.Now, the village’s best hope is the “cat train”, a caravan of caterpillars:
A caravan of bulldozers and rubber-tired “rollagons” is scheduled to
haul trailers, including a fuel tank for the vehicles, on a 90-mile,
18- to 36-hour trip along the Beaufort Sea coast.But time is running out, borough officials say. The village fuel tanks
and delivery truck are buried under snow, leaving only one or two days
worth of fuel. The borough may have to fly in fuel to keep the
generators running and buildings warm, said borough chief executive
officer Dennis Packer.Even when villagewide power is restored, homes could flood because of
broken pipes or valves. The borough may have to evacuate residents to
Barrow if they can’t be housed safely in Kaktovik, Packer said.No one was evacuated from the village on the helicopter, though one minor case of carbon monoxide poisoning was reported.
Residents of the storm-bound village appear to be holding up well, said
Richard Holschen, borough police officer. Every time he calls the
public works shop, where about 65 people are staying, “All I hear is
laughing,” he said. “It sounds like we’re missing a party.”
Comments (10)
I hope everyone is OK.
Hi there–well, it shot up to eleven below at the strip. Brrrr. No sign of the stand cats when I put out out food and water for them.
Worked on the kitten blog and posted it–the spacing thing is STILL a mystery to me, tried to fix it and just made it worse, didn’t feel like spending the rest of my hour farting with it, so I posted it with double- and quadruple-spacing.
Thank you for making me feel a little warmer.
Definitely makes me feel like a wimp! That’s a pretty scary situation, but I’m sure they’re all partying as they say, and staying very close together. What else can you do?
The closest we ever came to the blocked door, was a blizzard in March ’66. The back door was totally blocked – the snow was up over the kitchen windows, which were almost the height of the door. The front door had a little eddy that left just enough space to get it open. As kids, we loved it – we could walk around to the back & walk right up on the roof! The drifts around our house peaked at 10 ft & were quite solid enough to make wonderful snow-forts & tunnels. It was the year my parents gave us all snowshoes for christmas, so we were all over the neighborhood checking on friends, along with the few that could afford skidoos back then. Power was fine & the schools were closed for a week. I know that lots out in the countryside were fighting for their lives, but it was great fun for us.
FYI, still below zero here, weather.com says double digits tomorrow.
dear Lord…that is cold…I pray that those that inhabit that village find warmth very soon…Sassy
I know it’s not– but still… all these natural disaster-type happenings makes me really start thinking about the apocalypse.
stay safe.
With your permission I am going to start exploring your post. I am anxious to discover more about an obviously wise person.
Xgram–woo hoo, it warmed up to nothing! But it started snowing, if it doesn’t stop by tonight, I may blow off the meeting and push back the raffle.
I posted the latest PLR privately, and intend to do my next blog on NPD.
Later.
oh man.. today in cleveland it was over 60 degrees, and its about to drop fifty degrees in a few hours. what’s up with the weather these days? is all of our damage finally catching up to us, or is there something more? i guess i just left you with a rhetorical question. eh, its somethin.