Akiak has restored municipal electricity for its residents, 43 days after a mechanical failure at the community's power plant cut off power and forced many to bear the high costs of using personal generators through the outage.
Mayor Olinka Jones said that the restoration of power is a relief for the community but that plenty of work remains.
"There's a lot of emotions going on here," Jones said. "We're happy to have everything on, and we're slowly going to get everything back to working order."
Akiak is located about 40 miles northeast of Bethel and home to roughly 500 people. The community will still need to have at least one additional generator to provide power through the coldest months and allow for scheduled maintenance. Jones said that the mechanic who has assisted the community through the outage was still in Akiak as of Tuesday. The mechanic has also been inspecting potential damage to transformers and power lines caused by ex-typhoon Halong, Jones said.
"We still have a lot to go, you know, to work out and fix," Jones said.
During the outage, the community's school, water plant and health clinic were able to get by on backup generators. For dozens of families that relied on personal generators, fuel costs ran as much as $70 a day.
Some households were able to receive $500 fuel vouchers from the Association of Village Council Presidents during the outage. Jones said the council is working on a plan to provide power credits as compensation for those who didn't get a voucher.
The restoration of power puts the total length of the outage around 10 days short of that seen in the summer of 2024, when mechanical issues halted operations at the city's power plant for nearly two months.
Copyright 2025 KYUK