Dan Bross, KUAC - Fairbanks
Dan Bross is a reporter at KUAC in Fairbanks.
Interior Communities Seek Donations For Flood Recovery
Specific items are being requested to help flood impacted communities in the interior, including Galena, where the most severe and wide ranging break up damage occurred. State Division of Homeland security and emergency management spokesman Jeremy Zidek urges people wanting to help to consider what’s needed before making donations.
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New Tool Used To Combat Elodea
The invasive aquatic plant elodea is growing in a few Alaska fresh water sites, and work continues to fight it back.
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FEMA Admin Keeping Close Eye On Yukon River Disaster Response
FEMA Region 10 Administrator Ken Murphy is in Alaska this week to keep an eye on disaster response for Yukon River flood victims. Murphy spoke with APRN on Wednesday on the agency’s ultimate goal of providing services to disaster survivors to get them back on their feet as soon as possible. As of July 21, FEMA has paid out over $1 million in awards to individuals and households in the damaged areas.
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Galena, CCHRC Work Together To Rebuild Homes
The Fairbanks based Cold Climate Housing Research Center is working with Galena residents whose homes were damaged and destroyed by the flood. CCHRC President Jack Hebert is visiting Galena on Wednesday to share home designs based on past village housing projects, and get feedback from Galena.
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Stuart Creek Fire Remains At 57 Percent Containment
Fire managers report progress on the Stuart Creek wildfire east of Fairbanks. Nearly 450 firefighters remain on the blaze, which burned an 85,000-acre area south of Chena Hot Springs Road, until suppression work and rain slowed the flames.
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GVEA Forwards New Gas Trucking Proposal
Golden Valley Electric Association has forwarded a new gas trucking proposal. The Interior electric coop submitted the proposal to the state at the request of the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority Friday. AIDEA and the Alaska Energy Authority are shepherding the North Slope to Fairbanks project, and asked GVEA and three other parties interested in partnering with the state for updated proposals last month.
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Governor Emphasizes Work On LNG Trucking Plan
Governor Sean Parnell is reassuring Fairbanks area residents that the state is working toward trucking North Slope gas to the interior, where residents are currently limited to oil and wood for heat. The legislature approved an over $300 million financing package this spring, and a number of companies have expressed interest in participating.
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Fairbanks-Area Voters To File Opposition To Latest Redistricting Plan
Two Fairbanks area voters plan to file opposition to the latest state redistricting plan. Goldstream Valley resident Ron Dearborn and George Riley of Ester have contested redistricting board proposals in court from the start. Riley says their latest objections primarily focus on the re-alignment of two Fairbanks Senate Districts to make them more geographically and politically aligned.
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Evacuation Watch Lifted For Two Rivers, Pleasant Valley
Work will continue on the Stuart Creek wildfire east of Fairbanks, despite rainy weather.
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HAARP Facility Shuts Down
The High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program, or HAARP facility, shut down last month. The official in charge of the military research facility near Glennallen isn’t talking, but the closure appears to be short term.
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Cool, Damp Weather Assisting Stuart Creek 2 Firefighters
Cooler damper weather is helping fire fighters working the Stuart Creek 2 wildfire outside Fairbanks. Alaska Fire service information officer Bernie Pinetta says the focus remains along the blaze’s northeast perimeter, where spot fires were corralled Tuesday.
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Flood Warning Issued In Brooks Range
Heavy rain is swelling streams in the Brooks Range. National Weather Service meteorologist Jim Brader says a flood warning was issued early this morning for the region where precipitation began over night.
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Recovery Process Continues On ‘Sandbar Mitchell’
A Michigan based team in Fairbanks is recovering and restoring what’s left of an historic aircraft known as “Sandbar Mitchell.” Before starting their work, the group placed a plaque at the site of the plane crash that occurred on a Tanana River sandbar near Fairbanks 44 years ago. It remembers the Mitchell B-25 bomber that went down while in service as a fire fighting air tanker on June 27th 1969.
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Galena Residents Gradually Return To Rebuild
It’s been nearly a month since an ice choked Yukon River overflowed its banks and flooded Galena. The ice bergs have melted and the river looks docile, but many people remain displaced by what it did. Most flood refugees are living outside the village, but more and more are coming back to rebuild their lives.
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Lightning Strikes Ignite More Wildfires
The Alaska Interagency Fire Coordination Center is reporting dozens of new wildfires in the state.
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Tularemia Cases Reported In Delta Junction
A snowshoe hare has tested positive for Tularemia in Fairbanks. The sick animal was found by member of the public and brought it to a local vet, where it was dead upon arrival.
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Alaskans Dealing With Large Mosquito Crop
Anchorage residents are complaining of more mosquitoes this year than usual. And Interior Alaska residents are also dealing with what appears to be an unusually large mosquito crop. University of Alaska Museum curator of insects and professor of entomology Derek Sikes says there’s no scientific data to back it up, but that’s the local talk.
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State To Receive Brief Relief From Heat Wave
Some relief from the heat is in the forecast, followed by even hotter weather. National Weather Service forecaster Carey Freeman in Fairbanks says high pressure that’s brought record warmth to mainland Alaska this week will be briefly interrupted this weekend.
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Wildfire Near Chena Hot Springs Road Prompts Massive Response
A wildfire east of Fairbanks is drawing a massive air and ground response. The Kanuti fire started in a neighborhood off Chena Hot Springs Road, near Mile 17.
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Fairbanks Natural Gas Releases Trucking Project Details
Fairbanks Natural Gas has released details of a North Slope to Fairbanks gas trucking project proposal. The documents lay out costs and components of a system to treat and liquefy gas, including propane, and load it onto tanker trucks for shipment south.
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