Natural disasters and energy: local utility companies cover contingencies.

AuthorLavrakas, Dimitra
PositionENERGY

From earthquakes to surging ice-choked water, the Great Land delivers some great reminders that man is not in control here--nature is. This state has disasters that bring towns and villages to their knees, and recovery is complicated by distance, weather, and cost.

Over the last decade, there have been some memorable events that have left communities gasping, but the classic Alaska can-do attitude and preparedness has made the turn-around doable in a short time.

Destroying a Village

On May 28 Galena suffered what is considered one of the most devastating disasters in Alaska history, right behind the 1964 Good Friday earthquake.

Ninety percent of the village's buildings were destroyed when an ice dam fifteen miles downriver let loose the almost fifty miles of water that had backed up behind it.

Blamed on a rapid thaw after a long springtime that was colder than usual, it devastated Galena as well as villages all along the mighty Yukon River: Circle, Fort Yukon, Alakanuk, Emmonak, and Gulkana.

Galena, a mainly Athabascan village with a population of four hundred, is about 270 miles west of Fairbanks.

Its electricity system, owned by the village and run on diesel, was also affected. "That was one of our first priorities," says Galena City Manager Greg Moyer. "Within the first week, we got all the water and silt out of the power house."

Since 2004, Galena has been looking at alternative methods to provide power to the community, among them coal, nuclear, water turbines, and solar.

"We're looking at biomass now," Moyer says.

The Alaska National Guard, the Tanana Chiefs Conference, and the National Army Guard helped evacuate residents to Fairbanks by plane after Alaska Homeland Security stepped in as the waters threatened dike walls protecting the town's airport and looked as if flooding would cut off the evacuation route.

The Galena Interior Learning Academy, the town's boarding school, spared by a dike wall, served to house and feed residents who lost their homes, but had not left.

A major disaster declaration was announced on June 25, allowing the Federal Emergency Management Agency to designate Galena, Circle, and Eagle, all recently ravaged by spring floods, as communities eligible for permanent housing construction with agency paying 100 percent of purchasing and shipping for repair materials.

A Similar Scenario

Eagle received this declaration following its 2009 flood disaster, experiencing a similar scenario as the Yukon River unleashed...

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