Posts by Davis Hovey

Last week, public health officials participated in a statewide exercise that tested how communities would respond in the event of a widespread outbreak of an airborne disease. In Nome, as in many communities in Alaska, an added challenge of such a scenario would be the city’s isolation.

The community of Elim is going into its fourth day without running water, following a more-than-24 hour-long power outage over the weekend. As of Tuesday, the State issued a boil-water notice for the Norton Sound coastal community.

The pilot of a National Park Service airplane that crashed in the Bering Land Bridge National Preserve on Monday morning has been treated for his injuries and released from the hospital.

An alleged kidnapping in Nome over the weekend ended after the driver got stuck in the snow.

Despite the lack of sea ice in front of Nome, there is still enough ice remaining in the Norton Sound area for commercial crabbers to use. As such, the Department of Fish & Game says the 2019 winter season continues.

On Thursday, the Alaska House passed their version of the state budget, with $200 million in reductions. Though representatives didn’t adhere to Governor Mike Dunleavy’s budget proposals, they did make cuts to Medicaid, the School Bond Debt Reimbursement Program, and the state ferry service.

Testing will continue this summer in the Kigluaik Mountains, outside of Teller, at a site considered to be the largest graphite deposit in the country. The CEO of Graphite One wants the company to become the main supplier to the U.S. of coated spherical graphite (CSG) through the proposed Graphite Creek mining project.

This past weekend, the Nome Police Department twice responded to search-and-rescue requests for people stranded on sea ice.

Two bodies have been found between Nome and Teller, southwest of the Sinuk River Bridge. They’ve not yet been identified, but they may be the bodies of David Miller and Rex Iyatunguk, who went missing in February during a snowmachine ride to Nome.

Starting in early July, the first of almost ten cruise ships will pass through the Port of Nome. It’s expected to be the most cruise ships the city has ever had come through Nome waters in one summer.