Single Page
No weather respite for Alaska town of CordovaCORDOVA -- Residents of this Southcentral Alaska community, with help from the Alaska National Guard, have one day to dig themselves out of snowfall that’s buried the Prince William Sound town before more snow and rain piles up on strained roofs and avalanche-prone roads. On Friday, an overnight snowstorm brought the northeastern Prince William Sound region to a standstill, dumping almost 20 inches of snow in Valdez and bringing the total snow level on the ground at the Cordova airport to 59 inches. The heavy dump of snow in what’s already been an unusually snowy Alaska winter caused avalanches that closed major highways into both Cordova and Valdez, and caused the roofs of two commercial buildings in Cordova to collapse. A local emergency was declared by Cordova Mayor Jim Kallander on Friday afternoon, and the Alaska Department of Transportation sent five heavy equipment operators to the community to help dig out. But Mother Nature wasn’t done yet. Temperatures warmed up, and precipitation continued -- turning Cordova snow to rain. That rain, in turn, compressed the heavy layer of snow already pushing roofs around town to their limits and making residents more concerned. It wasn’t letting up Sunday. That 59 inches at the airport dropped down to 47 inches from Saturday night to Sunday morning, said Don Moore, decision support specialist with the National Weather Service’s Alaska region. According to Allen Marquette, public information officer with the city of Cordova, clearing the roofs -- already a concern -- became top priority on Sunday. “It’s an ongoing issue,” Marquette said. “Because of the rains, a lot of the (snow on) roofs did slough and fall off, so some doors were blocked,” preventing people from getting out of their homes, he said. Now, the residents of Cordova have a one-day break before more snow and rain arrives. Which means they have one day to get ahead of winter, a battle which -- thanks to a continuously mounting set of obstacles -- they’ve been one step behind on so far. Help on the wayAfter three long days of shoveling, the exhausted residents of Cordova on Sunday evening should get some help, in the form of 51 Alaska National Guardsmen, who arrived by fast ferry from Whittier. Maj. Gen. Thomas Katkus, the adjutant general in charge of the Alaska National Guard, said that the decision to ferry the troops to Cordova was one of necessity. “We mustered the forces of the Alaska National Guard,” Katkus said, “and the options were getting there by airplane or ocean transport. The weather system is prohibiting our aircraft (from getting to the community).” Katkus said that the soldiers in Whittier were set to board the ferry at 1 p.m. Sunday, and were slated to arrive in Cordova around 4 p.m. The typical ferry trip from Cordova to Whittier is a six-hour one on the Alaska Marine Highway System. Katkus said that the National Guard was able to muster the troops quickly because it was a drill weekend, when troops are already assembled for training. It took 19 hours from the time the decision was made to send troops to the time the troops departed for Whittier at 8:30 a.m. Sunday. He said that those troops won’t be reporting to their day jobs this week. “They will be there for up to two weeks,” Katkus said. Their arrival isn't a moment too soon, either, according to Kallander. “On Jan. 6, I got up in the morning, and barely got out of my driveway,” Kallander said. Then, he said, he got in a loader and started clearing the streets. “About two feet of very wet snow had fallen overnight,” he said. “It became very evident we wouldn’t be able to keep up.” The state of emergency was declared when the city’s snow dumps became full. Fortunately, Kallander said, the Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management already had a three-man team in town. According to John Madden, Director of the Division of Homeland Security for Alaska, the team was there at the request of Cordova administrators, to help the town “improve their plans for an emergency.” Additionally, division and the State Emergency Office Center coordinated the delivery of numerous pieces of heavy equipment to bolster the manpower descending on the city.
I lived in Cordova back in 1956 -57 when my father was stationed there in the Coast Guard. Now, we're in Houston, TX. Good luck to everyone in Cordova. Tom You guys want to load that up on some trucks and send it on over here to the NorthEast mountains we'd gladly take it off your hands. |
Comments