Alaskan Towns Close To Running Out Of Fuel As Ice Delays Oil Shipments
The harsh Alaskan winter is wreaking havoc on various towns that require shipments of oil to be received in order to operate. According to the Anchorage Daily News temperatures have dipped to 45-below, making passage through surrounding waters extremely difficult.
In one case a Noatak town store has run out of heating oil, while in other towns neighbors have begun using snowmobiles to sell wood to other people in the area.
For the worst hit areas such as the village of Kobuk they have turned to city reserve tanks to supply heating to homes.
Towns such as Nome rely on diesel and unleaded gasoline, shipments that have been delayed by large forming sheets of ice in the Bering Sea. As we reported on Sunday a US Coast Guard ice cutter has attempted to guide a Russian fuel tanker through the area however the process has been slow and a representative for the Coast Guard noted:
“As long as we’re making progress, we’re going to Nome.”
It’s not just ice that has halted deliveries to the region, towns were already hurting from delayed shipments in the fall.
If supplies are fully depleted Nome has considered flying in fuel however the cost per gallon would reach closer to $9 instead of the still high $5.98.
