Gov. Mike Dunleavy issued a disaster declaration for the coastal village of Quinhagak on Wednesday, Dec. 13. An extended power outage left many in the village of around a thousand without power for five days in freezing temperatures.
Jeremy Zidek is the public information officer for the Alaska Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management. He said that the state is communicating with the city and Native village governments, as well as charitable organizations like the American Red Cross.
Zidek said that the American Red Cross is organizing emergency resources, and that Alaska Village Electric Cooperative (AVEC), which is responsible for electricity in Quinhagak, continues to work on the power grid and is gathering information about damage to the power system. Quinhagak’s government is still assessing damages to homes and other infrastructure. Zidek said that will help the state figure out which programs to employ.
“There's a lot of assessment that has to take place,” Zidek said. “People like AVEC, they're subject matter experts in electrical systems. They'll conduct their assessments, we'll work with the city to look at damages to homes. Red Cross also has expertise on assessing damages. And so really there's going to be quite a few assessments that needs to take place in the coming days and weeks.”
Tracy Pleasant, Quinhagak’s city administrator, said that the city has the water treatment plant operational again, but many of the pipes around the community are still frozen. Even though heat is back, technicians still have to restart heat trace lines, which warm up the water in the pipes.
“From the last I heard there were 69 homes that were frozen and we’re still getting updates,” Pleasant said.
Pleasant said that as of the afternoon of Dec. 14, four houses still didn’t have power. She said that the city will deliver water for those that don’t have running water or a vehicle to haul water. Quinhagak is also gathering information about people whose food spoiled without electricity so that the Salvation Army can determine how much food to send to the village.
