January 13, 2005

• Kaktovik update

  A
  frost-covered truck sat in a maintenance shed in Kaktovik as villagers
  unloaded emergency supplies Wednesday from an Alaska National Guard
  C-130 aircraft. Electricity was restored to most homes in the Arctic
  village Wednesday, four days after the community lost power in a fierce
  blizzard
  (Photo by AL GRILLO / The Associated Press)

  About half the village of Kaktovik had electric power
  restored when today’s Anchorage Daily News went to press. 
  Wherever houses were warming up and pipes were thawing, there were
  water leaks and floods.  Now there are fears of electrical fires,
  too.

  It could take days or even weeks to fix leaks and get the community
  water plant operating normally, at a cost of millions of dollars, North
  Slope Borough officials say.

  Until then, the village of 300 will resort to the system it had before
  the borough brought running water and sewer service: plastic trash cans
  for drinking and washing, honey buckets for toilets and a portable
  fire-fighting trailer if a house catches fire.

  …

  The staff at Harold Kavelook School have been prowling dark classrooms
  and offices, preparing for the inevitable flood, Sansalla said. The
  school’s auxiliary generator died Sunday when hurricane-force winds
  packed the generator room with snow, and the building is “frozen
  solid,” he said.

  “Teachers are grabbing stuff off the walls, packing things in plastic
  bags and trying to save their computers for when they get heat and the
  pipes bust. They’re in there freezing, in the dark,” Sansalla said. “I
  don’t know how they’re doing it.”

  Village public works supervisor George Kaleak has the same fears on a
  bigger scale. He still doesn’t know how much damage occurred to the
  town’s 600,000-gallon water tank, underground pipes or water and sewer
  plants.

  The big tank didn’t freeze, he said, though water is leaking somewhere
  – perhaps underground, perhaps where the pipes connect to individual
  homes. It could take days to determine where the problems are and fix
  them, he said.

  Threats Loom as Kaktovik Thaws — Anchorage Daily News

  ---

  Here at home…

  …after
  two days and nights of thirty below zero, we’ve gained about thirty
  degrees in five hours.  Monday, the weather-guessers at National
  Weather Service and Weather.com were saying it would start warming up
  about 8:00 Tuesday night.   And that wasn’t the only
  mistake they made. 
  

  We
  live halfway between Willow and Talkeetna,  about 23 miles each
  way to town.  Monday, they reported the temperature in Talkeetna
  at -9°F, and in Willow at -4°F. 
  Our thermometers were reading in the mid-twenties below zero.  The
  weather-guessers predicted then that it would get slightly colder
  through the day, down to double digits in Talkeetna and not quite that
  cold in Willow, before it started warming up Tuesday night.  Here,
  between the towns, it went to around thirty below and stayed there
  until mid-day today, Thursday.

  It
  started snowing sometime after sunset, which was at 4:30 or so. 
  The snow was inevitable with that much warm air moving in so suddenly,
  and Greyfox had called earlier to tell us it was already snowing 50
  miles down the valley where he lives.  Doug went out around
  sundown to bring in a load of firewood, and made sure the snow shovels,
  axe, etc., were standing up so they wouldn’t be buried and lost. 
  We learned our lesson one winter when we lost the sled we used to haul
  wood, propane tanks and whatever else needed hauling.  Despite
  many trips out to probe here and there the sled didn’t turn up until
  the snow melted in May.

  Indoor
  temps for the last couple of days have been in the mid-to-high fifties
  thanks to 3 electric heaters and a lot of attention to the
  woodstove.  We also did some baking during that time, to help warm
  the place up.  We are lucky (or smart) enough not to depend on
  plumbing here, so there are no pipes or water tanks to freeze. 
  The water in the buckets on the kitchen floor remained liquid. 
  But I keep one bucket in the bathroom, and that one has a few inches of
  ice floating on the top now. 

  It
  was beside the bathtub and in contact with it.  I might have known
  better if I’d given it any thought.  I know that bathtub is a big
  heat-sink.  The end of it with the (now purely ornamental) faucets
  and showerhead adjoins the compartment where the water heater used to
  be before Mark removed it after it froze and burst during the tenancy
  of a previous set of housesitters.  That compartment opens on the
  outside and isn’t well insulated.

  In
  winter, when I’m preparing to take a shower, my first step is to set
  the electric heater in the tub so that it warms the tub and its drain
  as it heats the air in the room.   Then I fill my plastic
  camp shower bag with water that has been heating on top of the
  woodstove.  If it isn’t TOO cold outside then, I don’t freeze my
  feet as I shower.  If it’s exceptionally warm, like above zero,
  the tub might even drain instead of the water freezing in the pipe so
  that I have to bail my bathwater out into a slop bucket and carry it
  out to dump it.

  It
  may sound like a hassle, but still, it beats packing a bag with towels,
  toiletries and clean clothes, going to the laundromat to pay $4.00 for
  a shower and be harrassed to hurry if I take too long.  I don’t
  need a lot of water to shower.  My two-gallon SunShower pouch
  usually has a quart or two left in it when I’m done.  It’s time I
  need a lot of if I’m to get a satisfying shower — the loofa before and
  the lotion after and all of that.  They just don’t allow me that
  leisure at the laundromat, so I prefer to shower at home.

  I’m so glad it warmed up!
  P.S.  In case anyone’s wondering, I do take the electric heater out of the tub before I start my shower.
  
  
  

  • 9:40 pm
  • 5 Comments