The Kuskokwim River community of Napaskiak has been without power for several days.
Napaskiak Tribal Chief Sharon Williams said the village lost power late in the morning of Saturday, Dec. 6 due to electrical issues brought on by the ice storm over the weekend. The whole village remains without power, and attempts to restore electricity to some homes failed.
“At first they tried turning half of the village on, and then the power plant couldn't take because there was a short somewhere,” Williams explained.
The Alaska Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management reported the outage on Monday, Dec. 8. They said that the Alaska Energy Authority has been notified.
Williams said some households are able to run on backup generators, though large appliances like refrigerators may require too much to maintain through the outage. Williams said the Native Village of Napaskiak declared a state of emergency on Dec. 8 after a water pipe burst, affecting the community’s access to water.
“When the lights go back to normal, it's gonna take while to thaw out the wastewater pipe,” Williams said. “We need that one to make water, and then the pipes are gonna have to be changed out because they burst.”
Williams said Napaskiak’s stores have been closed.
People in the community have been traveling the 10 miles upriver to Bethel via snowmachine trails on the Kuskokwim River to get food and fuel for generators.
“There are some people on Facebook begging if they can catch a ride to Bethel to get food, saying that they're out of food,” Williams said.
The school is running on backup generators and has announced it will operate on a two hour delay through Friday, Dec. 12. Any students sheltering in Bethel through the outage are excused from school if reported by their families.
This story is breaking and will continue to be updated.
