Photo archive for July 28, 2008
Commander of the 3rd Wing, Col. Richard Walberg discusses the death of former wing commander Brig. Gen. Thomas L. Tinsley during a press conference held July 28, 2008 on Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage, Alaska. Lt. Col. Michael Paoli, an Air Force spokesman, said the death is under investigation, and there doesn't appear to be any indication of foul play at this time. Col. Mark Chance of the 3rd Wing stands beside Walberg.
Rick Boyles watches the flight path of his ball after teeing off on the 14th hole of the Chena Bend Golf Course during the Golden Days Golf Tournament on Sunday afternoon, July 27, 2008.
Linda Gustafson watches the flight path of her ball after teeing off on the 17th hole of the Chena Bend Golf Course during the Golden Days Golf Tournament on Sunday afternoon, July 27, 2008.
Brothers Robert, left, and Gerry Hovda run in the Northern Area Aquatics Sprint Triathlon Sunday morning, July 27, 2008, at Chena Lakes Recreation Area.
Crystal Pitney, right, flashes the OK gesture after stopping briefly to retie her shoelaces toward the beginning of the running leg of the Northern Area Aquatics Sprint Triathlon Sunday morning, July 27, 2008, at Chena Lakes Recreation Area. Pitney raced to a victory in the women’s division.
Reese Hanneman powers his way to a victory in the Northern Area Aquatics Sprint Triathlon Sunday morning, July 27, 2008, at Chena Lakes Recreation Area.
Swimmers work their way towards a Chena Lakes shore during the Northern Area Aquatics Sprint Triathlon Sunday morning, July 27, 2008.
Al George
Trisha Kiefer-Reed laughs as Pawnee, a 6-year-old Thoroughbred cross, opens his mouth Friday afternoon, July 25, 2008. Kiefer-Reed owns Run-A-Muck Ranch in Two Rivers.
Firefighters Alyssa Quaile, left, Forrest Baumfalk, hidden, and Rick Berne guide a rescue sled up an embankment during the Chena-Goldstream Fire and Rescue open house Sunday afternoon, July 27, 2008. On the sled is Alex Hill, 7. The educational family day also featured fire safety tips, hands-on exposure to fire and rescue tools and a vehicle victim extrication demonstration featuring the “Jaws of Life” tools.
Children use a rope and pull assembly to pull a rescue sled up an embankment during the Chena-Goldstream Fire and Rescue open house Sunday afternoon, July 27, 2008. The educational family day also featured fire safety tips, hands-on exposure to fire and rescue tools and a vehicle victim extrication demonstration featuring the “Jaws of Life” tools.
Terri Ekalook Emergency planners in Barrow look out for storms eroding the coastline, but they also look out for storms tossing big chunks of sea ice onto the shore. Terri Ekalook, the North Slope Borough’s risk manager, remembers the “ivu” that happened two years ago. Ice piled up 15 feet in some places and covered half of the road along the coast. “It looked like little blocks of ice the size of mini cars, just stacked up,” she said. The day it happened, the borough put together a crisis action team that included a few whaling captains. The whalers said if they could just see what was going on off the shore, they would know what the ice would do in town. So the local weather bureau found satellite images of the ice. The whalers looked at the images and said, OK, it’s over. “They were exactly right, it was over,” Ekalook said. “It was like, ‘Wow, that was cool.’” The worst ivu in recent history happened in the 1970s, but some Barrow residents worry ivus could get worse as the ice thins.
Mary Sage Mary Sage takes pride in her Inupiat heritage and values traditional foods. She likes to tell a story about the time her 1-year old son cried and pointed at the freezer. She figured he wanted ice cream, but when she opened the door, he reached for the whale blubber. “He was crying for muktuk,” she said. Her husband Joe is co-captain of the Akootchook Crew, one of the roughly 45 registered whaling crews in Barrow. Last September, Joe told a state commission studying climate change he was worried about losing some of the whaling traditions -- like hunting with sealskin boats -- as the arctic sea ice continues to shrink. Their children are Alexandra, Clara, Andrew, and Kivvaq.
Anne Jensen Archaeologist Anne Jensen has worked on the North Slope since 1986 and lived in Barrow for the last 12 years. She works at a site near Barrow that’s at least 1,000 years old and is quickly washing into the ocean – protecting the site is literally a race against erosion. And the coast seems to be eroding faster now than before, she says. Two summers ago, she helped a researcher install a meteorological tower on a spit past the site. He wanted it close to the water, so they put it about 30 yards away. Then a storm tore away 20 yards of coastline. “It just totally smacked that thing down,” Jensen said last fall. “I told him it was too close.”
Dave Anderson Dave Anderson is the National Weather Service’s lead forecaster in Barrow, where the average annual temperature is just 10 degrees Fahrenheit and it can snow any month of the year. In recent years, Anderson has watched as the arctic sea ice shrinks more and more in the summer months. Replacing sea ice with open water can affect weather locally and as far away as Canada and even the lower 48, depending on the course of the storms, he said last fall. “It gives the storms a bigger moisture source -- another moisture source.”
Mike Aamodt Mike Aamodt has fished and hunted for the last 27 years at a camp on the coast 55 miles southeast of Barrow. In recent years, coastal erosion has become a major problem. “All of sudden, my beach started disappearing,” Aamodt said last fall. Over the course of six years, the 1,000 feet of ground separating his cabin from the coast simply disappeared. Where there used to be only a small step from the beach to the tundra, there’s now a 60-foot cliff. “I’ve seen 60 or 70 feet of land just topple over,” he said. “It shakes the ground. It’s like a bomb going off.” Aamodt dragged the cabin a mile back from the coast four year ago. Now it’s nine-tenths of a mile.
David Atkinson The size of a wave depends on how strong the wind is, how long the wind lasts, and how much space the wave has to grow, says David Atkinson, who studies storms and coastal impacts at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. As arctic sea ice shrinks, there’s more open water for waves and storm surges to build up. And bigger waves means more erosion along the coast. Erosion is natural, but the shrinking of the ice is making it worse, Atkinson said. Later freeze-ups, earlier break-ups, and thawing permafrost can also make coastlines more susceptible to erosion.
Eugene Brower Eugene Brower, who has served as president of the Barrow Whaling Captains’ Association for decades, tracks the weather and ocean like someone whose life depends on it. Ocean currents and wind patterns seem to be changing, he says, and waves are getting bigger as arctic sea ice shrinks. Brower used to use a small aluminum skiff to go whaling in the fall, but now he uses a 27-foot C-Dory. When the ice was just over the horizon, the small skiffs were OK, he said. But now the waves can be 8 feet or bigger. “The little 18-foot skiffs are going to take a beating,” he said, “Or they’re going to sink.”
