After being open for a record high amount of consecutive days -around three weeks- the ice road that spans from Kotzebue to Noorvik and Kiana is closed. After a snow storm Sunday night (April 9th), several Kotzebue residents found their vehicles on the wrong side of the road.
On a trip to Noorvik, Kotzebue resident Robin Gage’s wife, Frances, was stopped right outside of Noorvik after trying to get home.
Gage, who had snowmachined out to the road, describes the terrain as currently impassable.
“Some people were down there on the river right outside of Noorvik,” Gage said. “And they stopped her and said, ‘Don’t even go, don’t waste your time, it’s no good, it’s closed.’ And so she never left Noorvik.”
As of Tuesday, the city confirmed two vehicles are stuck on the Noorvik side of the ice road. Northwest Arctic Borough chief of staff Patrick Savok said the Borough has no intentions of opening up the road any further.
“The official status as of today is the ice road to Noorvik and Kiana from Kotzebue has been blown over and is now closed,” Savok said. “We do not have the any remaining funds to reopen the road and we are scrambling looking at our books to find whatever we can to at least save somewhat of an opening as we know there are some vehicles stuck up in the villages”
Savok said those with stuck cars may have few options for getting their vehicles home.
“One has already been brought back to Kotzebue by two or four snowmachines that’s an option. Secondly, is the barging system when the waterways open,” Savok said. “Thirdly is to –and some people have done this before in the past- leave their vehicle up there until the next year’s ice road.”
Savok said making an ice road is costly. Aside from local donations, the Borough is given a $50,000 grant to help provide for car travel to Kotzebue. This year, the Borough reports it has already spent all existing funds.
In the meantime, Robin Gage said being one car down just means using the four wheeler.
Tyler Stup is a reporter at KNOM in Nome.
Born and raised in Colorado, Tyler graduated from Colorado State University class of 2016. Majoring in economics, he sought a path that combined his studies and radio. When the opportunity came to do radio in Western Alaska he jumped at it the first chance he got. He’s been in radio for three-and-a-half years now and has loved every second of it.
