Alaska

Tundra Fire Raging Through Southwest Alaska Threatens Villages

Published

2 years ago

June 11, 2022

Tundra Fire Raging Through Southwest Alaska Threatens Villages

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — The most important documented wildfire burning by way of tundra in southwest Alaska was inside miles of two Alaska Native villages, prompting officers Friday to induce residents to organize for potential evacuation.

This got here a day after dozens of elders and residents with well being issues voluntarily evacuated due to smoke from the close by fireplace.

On this aerial photograph offered by the BLM Alaska Hearth Service, the East Fork Hearth burns about 25 miles north of St. Mary’s, Alaska on June 2, 2022. The

Pat Johnson, BLM Alaska Hearth Service by way of AP

Officers on Friday put the communities of St. Mary’s and Pitkas Level into “prepared” standing, which means residents ought to collect necessary gadgets they might need to have with them in the event that they need to evacuate, stated U.S. Bureau of Land Administration Alaska Hearth Service spokesperson Beth Ipsen by textual content. That may be adopted by “set,” or getting a go-bag prepared and leaving if the “go” order is given.

The fireplace is consuming dry grass, alder and willow bushes on the largely treeless tundra as gusts of as much as 30 mph (48.28 kph) are pushing the fireplace within the basic course of St. Mary’s and Pitkas Level, Yup’ik subsistence communities with a mixed inhabitants of about 700 individuals and about 10 miles (16 kilometers) aside.

There are about 65 firefighters battling the blaze, with about 40 extra anticipated later Friday, Ipsen earlier stated by cellphone.

In this aerial photo provided by the BLM Alaska Fire Service, the east side of the East Fork Fire is seen near St. Mary's, Alaska, on June 9, 2022. — On this aerial photograph offered by the BLM Alaska Hearth Service, the east aspect of the East Fork Hearth is seen close to St. Mary’s, Alaska, on June 9, 2022.

The fireplace had not grown a lot since Thursday and was nonetheless estimated at 78 squares miles (202 sq. kilometers). The northerly winds pushed the fireplace to inside 5 miles (8 kilometers) of St. Mary’s, officers stated in a late Friday replace.

Ipsen stated she was not conscious of any buildings which were misplaced.

Crews cleared brush and different gasoline from a swath of land within the path of the flames, and air tankers dropped retardant between the road and St. Mary’s as one other buffer. Different plane had been dropping water on the fireplace till one other fireplace broke out north of a close-by neighborhood, Mountain Village.

Local weather change has performed a job on this historic fireplace, stated Rick Thoman, a local weather specialist with the College of Alaska Fairbanks’ Worldwide Arctic Analysis Middle.

He stated based mostly on information from the Alaska Hearth Service relationship again to the Forties, that is the biggest documented wildfire within the decrease Yukon River valley. There are a lot greater fires recorded simply 50 or 60 miles (97 kilometers) north of St. Mary’s, however these burned in boreal forests.

The world the place the tundra fireplace is burning, the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, misplaced its snowpack early this yr, leaving grass and different vegetation longer to dry out. Coupled with the warmest interval on file within the area just lately, it offered for the right storm for this hearth that was began by lightning on Could 31.

“Local weather change didn’t trigger the thunderstorm that sparked that fireplace, however it elevated the probability that the ambient situations could be receptive,” he stated.

The southwest Alaska hub neighborhood of Bethel, about 100 miles (160.93 kilometers) southeast of St. Mary’s, is the closest long-term climate station.

For the interval overlaying the final week of Could and the primary week of June, Bethel had its warmest temperatures on file this yr, 9 levels F (12.78 levels C) above its regular 48 levels F (8.89 levels C), Thoman stated.

About 80 village elders and others with well being issues have been relocated to the Alaska Nationwide Guard Armory in Bethel on Thursday, stated Jeremy Zidek, spokesperson for the Alaska Division of Homeland Safety and Emergency Administration.

Two firms that present commuter air service in roadless western Alaska flew the passengers to Bethel.

A kind of was Yute Commuter Providers, which offered 12 flights out of St. Mary’s on its planes that seat six, stated Andrew Flagg, the corporate’s station supervisor in Bethel.

On Friday, he stated they have been requested to ship ingesting water to the neighborhood so it might be given to the firefighters.

St. Mary’s and Pitkas Level, which is on the confluence of the Andreafsky and Yukon rivers, are situated about 450 miles (724 kilometers) west of Anchorage.

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Alaska

State of Alaska will defend its right to facilitate oil and gas development

Published

2 hours ago

November 23, 2024

Press Room

State of Alaska will defend its right to facilitate oil and gas development

Last week, Superior Court Judge Andrew Guidi indicated he will rule that Alaska does not have authority to permit access across its lands to facilitate oil and gas development on the North Slope.

The Alaska Dept. of Natural Resources plans to fight and appeal any final adverse ruling that undermines the state’s constitutional interests in resource development.

The Department of Natural Resources has issued a permit allowing Oil Search Alaska (OSA) to cross the Kuparuk River Unit, operated by Conoco Phillips Alaska, to develop the Pikka Unit. As described in the State’s brief to the court, “the denial of such access implicates the delay of development of millions of barrels of oil and billions of dollars of public revenues.”

“The State of Alaska has a constitutional obligation to maximize the development of our resources,” DNR Commissioner John Boyle said on Nov. 22. “We have to confirm with the Supreme Court that we have the authority to permit access for all developers to ensure we can meet this obligation.”

Once the Superior Court issues the final judgement, Alaska will be able to file its appeal. This is expected to occur in the coming weeks.

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Alaska

Close encounters with the Juneau kind: Woman reports strange lights in Southeast Alaska skies

Published

10 hours ago

November 23, 2024

Press Room

Close encounters with the Juneau kind: Woman reports strange lights in Southeast Alaska skies

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – For Juneau resident Tamara Roberts, taking photos of the northern lights was just a hobby — that is until a different light altogether caught her eye.

Capturing what she’s called strange lights in the skies of Juneau near her home on Thunder Mountain, Roberts said she’s taken 30 to 40 different videos and photos of the lights since September 2021.

“Anytime I’m out, I’m pretty sure that I see something at least a couple times a week,” Roberts said. “I’m definitely not the only one that’s seeing them. And if people just pay more attention, they’ll notice that those aren’t stars and those aren’t satellites.”

Roberts has been a professional photographer for over 20 years. She said she changed interests from photographing people to wildlife and landscape when she moved to Juneau 13 years ago.

Once she started making late-night runs trying to capture the northern lights, she said that’s when she started encountering her phenomenon.

Roberts said not every encounter takes place above Thunder Mountain: her most recent sighting happened near the Mendenhall Glacier while her stepmom was visiting from Arizona.

“She’d never been here before, so we got up and we drove up there, and lo and behold, there it was,” Roberts said. “I have some family that absolutely thinks it’s what it is, and I have some family that just doesn’t care.”

Roberts described another recent encounter near the glacier she said was a little too close for comfort. While driving up alone in search of the northern lights, she expected to see other fellow photographers out for the same reason as she normally does.

But this night was different.

“I’ve gone up there a million times by myself, and this night, particularly, it was clear, it was cold and the [aurora] KP index was high … so as I’m driving up and there’s nobody there. And I was like, Okay, I’ll just wait and somebody will show up.’ So I backed up into the parking spot underneath the street light — the only light that’s really there on that side of the parking lot — and I turned all my lights off, left my car running, looked around, and there was that light right there, next to the mountain.”

Roberts said after roughly 10 minutes of filming the glowing light, still not seeing anyone else around, she started to get a strange feeling that maybe she should leave.

“I just got this terrible gut feeling,” Roberts said. “I started to pull out of my parking spot and my car sputtered. [It] scared me so bad that I just gunned the accelerator, but my headlights … started like flashing and getting all crazy.

“I had no headlights, none all the way home, no headlights.”

According to the Juneau Police Department, there haven’t been any reports of strange lights in the sky since Sept. 14, when police say a man was reportedly “yelling about UFOs in the downtown area.”

Responding officers said they did not locate anything unusual, and no arrests were made following the man’s report.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration National Weather Service in Juneau also said within the last seven days, no reports of unusual activity in the skies had been reported. The Federal Aviation Administration in Juneau did not respond.

With more and more whistleblowers coming forward in Congressional hearings, Roberts said she thinks it’s only a matter of time before the truth is out there.

“Everybody stayed so quiet all these years for the fear of being mocked,” Roberts said. “Now that people are starting to come out, I think that people should just let the reality be what it is, and let the evidence speak for itself, because they’re here, and that’s all there is to it.”

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Alaska

‘We’re ready to test ourselves’: UAA women’s hoops faces tallest task yet in another edition of the Great Alaska Shootout

Published

18 hours ago

November 23, 2024

Press Room

‘We’re ready to test ourselves’: UAA women’s hoops faces tallest task yet in another edition of the Great Alaska Shootout

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – Heading into Friday’s game with a 6-1 record, Alaska Anchorage women’s basketball is faced with a tall task.

The Seawolves are set to face Division I Troy in the opening round of the 2024 Great Alaska Shootout. Friday’s game is the first meeting between the two in program history.

“We’re gonna get after it, hopefully it goes in the hoop for us,” Seawolves head coach Ryan McCarthy said. “We’re gonna do what we do. We’re not going to change it just because it’s a shootout. We’re going to press these teams and we’re going to try to make them uncomfortable. We’re excited to test ourselves.”

Beginning the season 1-4, the Trojans have faced legitimate competition early. Troy has played two ranked opponents to open the season, including the 2023 national champion and current top-10 ranked Louisiana State University on Nov. 18. The Trojans finished runner-up in the Sun Belt Conference with a 15-3 record last season.

“At the end of the day, they’re women’s basketball players too. They’re the same age as us and they might look bigger, faster and stronger, but we have some great athletes here,” junior guard Elaina Mack said. “We’re more disciplined, we know that we put in a lot of work, and we have just as good of a chance to win this thing as anybody else does.”

The 41st edition of the tournament is also set to feature Vermont and North Dakota State. The two Div. I squads will battle first ahead of UAA’s match Friday night.

All teams will also play Saturday in a winner and loser bracket to determine final results.

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