Power crew arrives in Alaskan village
Aircraft with relief supplies is unable to land
(CNN) -- Emergency officials in Alaska's North Slope succeeded Tuesday in dropping a power crew into the remote village of Kaktovik under blizzard conditions in an attempt restore electricity to the community of 300 residents, but were unsuccessful in landing a second aircraft carrying relief supplies.
According to North Slope Borough Mayor George Ahmaogak, a military helicopter landed Tuesday afternoon in the village, unloading two linesmen, who then set up temporary runway lights at Kaktovik's airport.
Officials were hoping to land an Army Air National Guard C-130 cargo plane, filled with supplies, at the snow-drifted airstrip -- but conditions were too severe, forcing the transport to be diverted to Prudhoe Bay, from where the supplies will be shipped overland.
A winter storm that has been raging since the weekend knocked out the village's power distribution lines. Winds have been as strong as 80 mph during the blizzard, according to the mayor, with the wind chill as low as 70 degrees below zero. Conditions are supposed to clear sometime Wednesday.
"Only one-third of the power has been on intermittently since Sunday," Ahmaogak said from Barrow, about 300 miles northwest of Kaktovik.
Most of the town's residents are Inupiat Eskimos. Two years ago, the city spent $28 million on a sewer and water system that the blizzard has frozen solid, Ahmaogak said
Some citizens have huddled in the few public buildings that have power and heat. Others have stayed at home during the brutal conditions. Portable toilet facilities have been set up.
"We trying to get to the fuel as a priority," Ahmaogak said, "so we can replenish the generators, but the tanks are all covered with snow drifts."
Getting a power crew to Kaktovik was a major undertaking.
Linesmen were flown from Barrow to Elmendorf Air Force Base near Anchorage in the south, where they boarded a military helicopter that was capable of landing in the powerless village. The trip from Barrow to Elmendorf to Kaktovik covered roughly 1,500 miles.
Ahmaogak said the snow has been whipped into drifts up to two stories high by the winds. Kaktovik is on Alaska's northeastern coastline, north of the Arctic Circle, just 90 miles west of Canada.
Since the C-130 was not able to land at Kaktovik, the borough will dispatch Rollagons -- heavy-duty, all-terrain vehicles capable of traversing the tundra -- from Prudhoe Bay filled with propane, water, food, electrical supplies, diesel fuel and standby generators.
The painstaking trip is expected take at least 18 hours to cover the 120 miles to the village.
Despite the severe conditions, Ahmaogak said he had no reports of fatalities in Kaktovik with only one person receiving treatment for carbon monoxide poisoning.
"Everybody's in good shape for now," he said.
