It’s been one week since an ice storm cut off the fiber optic cable in the Arctic Ocean, cutting communications to at most half a dozen villages within Northern Alaska. A lot of people are still without internet or cell service, and the firm which owns the cable has said it will take two months before the line is fixed.
The disruption is disrupting the routine life for numerous communities located that are located above the Arctic circle, including crucial emergency services.
The line connected the majority areas of Northwest Alaska. Quintillion is an Alaska-based corporation who owns the line states that the cable broke mainly caused problems for Nome, Kotzebue, Point Hope, Wainwright and Utqiagvik along with those villages in Atqasuk as well as Nuiqsut.
On Wednesday The North Slope Borough issued an emergency declaration that stated that the fiber disruption could “severely impair” the capacity to provide vital services like search and rescue as well as fire and police utilities.
In Atqasuk, people are feeling repercussions of the break. Doug Whiteman is mayor of the Atqasuk community, which is home to around 300 people. It’s located 60 miles to the southwest of Utqiagvik. Whiteman says that emergency communications don’t work as they should between the communities.
“We encountered a situation that involved 911 calls. The police officer from the village could make a call to Barrow as well. They could listen but the responses didn’t appear,” he said. “It’s only a one-way conversation.”
Whiteman says that the Borough is warning the community to not use the only a small amount of internet is available. At present public safety, the fire and health clinics are all connected to one satellite phone.
Further to the south, Wainwright — a town of 700 residents faces similar problems.
The MayorChester Ekak claims Wainwright is experiencing issues with their 911 service as well. There was also a one-way communications with emergency personnel in Utqiagvik that forced them to come up with a solution.
“We had to establish an interim dispatch facility, and use VHF for fire, police and ambulance calls,” he said.
He claims it’s not only the emergency response that’s come to an end. It’s also the everyday.
“It’s impacting businesses. Day-to-day operations. Stores became cash-only stores — all of them were affected by the cable cut,” he said.
Ekak claims ATMs need an internet connection which means that customers are unable to take cash out of the cash-only companies. Also, Ekak is also concerned about those who are receiving assistance such as EBT since they aren’t able to use their cards.
Companies located in Kotzebue are also experiencing the consequences. Lewis Pagel is the owner and the lead physician at Arctic Chiropractic. He claims that his office isn’t connected to the internet this means that he’s unable to handle insurance billing, and his patients cannot book appointments.
“Also my credit card machine doesn’t function as well. This means I’m not able to take payment at the office. From a financial perspective it’s quite detrimental,” he said.
Pagel’s office doesn’t stand alone. Kotzebue the City’s Manager Tessa Baldwin says the fiber interruption is disrupting the city’s operations -and that the city is unable connect to their servers, internet and phone.
“The city is not connected to the internet. it’s not even connected to the internet.I went there this early to collect my taxes for my business. They aren’t able to process any transactions,” she said. “We’re extremely fortunate that emergency services are functioning.”
In the last week Baldwin claims that the city is stumbling over the payroll. They managed to fix the issue, and more than 100 employees of the city will receive their paychecksjust a few days behind.
“It’s been incredibly difficult to navigate in a city that has no phone or internet service,” she said.
Baldwin states there were problems with other things like meeting city’s grant deadlines, and also communicating with partners of the city beyond Kotzebue.
