Residents of the upper Kuskokwim River community of McGrath say mobile and landline communications have been patchy or non-existent since at least last weekend.
According to city administrator Greg Knight, landlines were still down as of Thursday afternoon, while mobile calls remained “very spotty.” Knight said that he first noticed the landline issue on Aug. 10, when he found that his office phone had no dial tone. That same day, he said, the phone issues went from a hassle to a public safety risk.
“There was a situation where 911 had to be accessed over the weekend, and it was not able to be reached,” Knight said. “It was an ATV accident that turned fatal on the outskirts of town.”
A report from the Alaska State Troopers confirms that 33-year-old Katie Tall was declared dead at the scene on Aug. 10 after an ATV she was driving went off the road at a high rate of speed.
According to Paul Walker, program director for local radio station KSKO, a couple who discovered the woman’s body had to personally travel to the home of the local primary care provider to get help after being unable to place a 911 call.
“If she had been alive in an accident like she was in, that five, six minute delay of getting medical on scene could have made a difference,” Walker said.
Walker has been providing updates to the community on the radio and over social media throughout the outages. At the same time, the local air carrier, health clinic and Native council have taken to an online community bulletin board to recommend email as a workaround.
Walker said that a technician from communications provider GCI has been in the community since Aug. 12, and that two more technicians were being dispatched on Thursday.
GCI is the sole mobile provider in McGrath, while its subsidiary company, United Utilities, Inc., provides local landline services.
In an emailed statement on Aug. 15, GCI wrote, “technicians have replaced equipment and successfully restored some of the impacted services.” But the company did not offer a specific timeline for when mobile and landline services would be fully restored.
