King cove

King Cove often makes headlines for its long-fought battle over a proposed road that would connect it to the all-weather airport in Cold Bay. The remote Aleutian community says the road is key to saving lives because medevacs have a hard time landing on the small, gravel airstrip. With such limited healthcare, it’s a big deal when the community gets new medical equipment. And when they get something big, like the new ambulance that arrived in August, that can be cause for celebration.

The telecommunications company said in a statement that Sand Point, King Cove and Akutan began receiving the company’s high-speed internet service in July, hailing it a “major milestone” in closing the digital divide between urban and rural communities.

Lawyers for King Cove are pushing back against a Thursday decision from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals that effectively permits the U.S. government to withdraw from a land swap that would have allowed for construction of the controversial King Cove road. The Eastern Aleutian community of around 750 people has wanted to build a road to the airstrip in Cold Bay for decades, which they say would provide access to emergency medical care. But different conservation groups have pushed back, because the road would pass through a national wildlife sanctuary.

Deb Haaland, the first Native American cabinet secretary, made no commitments to building a road long sought by residents that would cut through a national wildlife refuge on the Alaska Peninsula. But she listened intently on a whirlwind day of flights, tours and meetings.

A federal appeals court last week reversed a decision that had impeded construction of a road through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge. The proposed road would stretch 11 miles through the wildlife refuge on the Alaska Peninsula, connecting the communities of King Cove and Cold Bay. The project has been held up in the courts since 2020, when a judge blocked a land exchange necessary for the road’s construction. But the court decided last Wednesday to reverse that judge’s decision that prevented the swap between King Cove’s Native corporation and the federal government. Supporters of the road say it will save lives. The small airport in King Cove is closed due to weather around 100 days a year, on average. Advocates say connecting King Cove to the much larger airport in Cold Bay would make emergency medical care more accessible for residents of the small community in the Aleutians East Borough.

Communities across the West Coast woke up Saturday morning to tsunami advisory alerts. An underwater volcano near the Kingdom of Tonga had erupted and sent waves thousands of miles across the ocean.Waves of up to about three feet reached parts of Alaska by Saturday morning. But hours before those waves arrived, sounds from the blast reached the homes of many Alaskans — all the way from Juneau to the Aleutians.

A tsunami advisory for communities in coastal Alaska, including the Aleutian and Pribilof Islands, was canceled Saturday afternoon. The National Weather Service issued the tsunami advisory for much of coastal California, Oregon, Washington, British Columbia and Alaska following a volcanic eruption near Tonga in the South Pacific on Friday.

GCI crews began construction in Unalaska Tuesday in preparation to bring fiber optic broadband to the island.

The City of Unalaska confirmed what it called a "widespread community exposure" of COVID-19, after identifying two new community acquired cases of the…

Unalaskans could see a significant boost in internet service by late 2022, if GCI completes work to lay fiber cable as planned. The telecommunications…