Aid reaches Alaska village put in deep freeze by power outage

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - An Alaska National Guard helicopter reached a frozen Arctic village on Tuesday with technicians who hoped to repair its electrical generator, which failed Sunday during a blizzard that sent the temperature to 20 below zero.

About 100 of Kaktovik's 300 residents were in the village's equipment maintenance building because it still had power. Others were heavily dressed and hunkered down in other buildings with stoves or small generators.

Alaska National Guard spokeswoman Kalei Brooks said the helicopter and a cargo plane approached the village Tuesday afternoon. Snow drifts on a runway kept the airplane from landing, but the helicopter touched down in Kaktovik itself 2 to 3 miles away.

The time on the ground was brief - just five to 10 minutes, Brooks said.

"It was on the ground long enough to offload the technicians they need to restore the power," she said, plus about 600 pounds of portable generating equipment.

Conditions in Kaktovik were a little colder Tuesday with a reading of 25 degrees below zero and winds gusting up to 65 mph, according to the National Weather Service.

Earlier air attempts to reach Kaktovik were frustrated by "a complete, total whiteout," said Mike Haller, a spokesman for the state Department of Military and Veterans Affairs.

People who couldn't leave their homes were using propane stoves, kerosene heaters and wood stoves to try to stay warm, or bundling up in arctic gear. No injuries have been reported, said Dennis O. Packer, also in the mayor's office.

Plans were under way to get another 4,000 pounds of generators, oil and other equipment to the northeast Alaska village, which is on Barter Island along the Beaufort Sea coast. It's the only village in the 19.6-million-acre Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.