Generator problems caused ongoing power outages for Tuluksak over the past month.
Many people lost their summer subsistence harvest because of the lack of electricity to operate freezers, and the problem is expected to continue into early next week.
Living in the lower Kuskokwim River community is like living at a giant fish camp, Tuluksak resident Angela Alexie said.
“When you’re living out at fish camp you have to have a generator, or some people have a generator,” she said.
The power has been out for about a week. The generator motors run day and night.
Alexie’s small generator can only run a few appliances at a time.
She buys diesel every day to fuel it, and it’s not big enough to run her stove or her freezer.
“I had to take some of my fish out and take it over to my parents’ freezer before I lost everything,” she said.
Alexie has lost about a quarter of her subsistence fish.
Her dry fish should be fine. She whipped her salmonberries into akutaq to prolong them, but Alexie has not been able to save everything.
“All my half-dry fish, gaamaarrluk, that I had to feed to the dogs,” Alexie said.
She shares her subsistence fish among four families: Alexie’s, her parents, and her two sisters.
She hopes for a strong silver salmon run to help replace what was lost, but the drying weather in August is not expected to be as good as it was earlier in the summer.
In Tuluksak, not every home has a generator.
Alexie’s parents bought hers two years ago after another weeklong power outage wiped out her fall and winter subsistence catch.
Multi-day power outages are a frequent problem in the community, and residents have become frustrated with the inconvenience and cost of the situation.
“Here and there, there’s more generators every year in the village,” Alexie said.
The Tuluksak Native Community operates the power plant. Parts for the broken generator are expected to arrive Monday in Anchorage.
