Jennifer Pemberton

Alaska health officials say that a Juneau woman in her 30s has died of COVID-19. It’s not clear when she died. 

The state reported a total of 21 new deaths among Alaska residents. One was in February of this year, and the rest were from May through July. 

Over the course of the pandemic, 22 Juneau residents have died from COVID-19.

The state reported 63 cases of COVID-19 in Juneau last week among residents and visitors to town. That’s down 44% from the week before, when there were 112 cases. The counts don’t include positive results from home tests.

There were 2,553 cases reported across the state. That includes 686 non-resident cases — 329 of those were on vessels at sea related to tourism.

Statewide, 65 people with COVID-19 are in the hospital, and one is on a ventilator. One person is being treated for COVID-19 infection at Bartlett Regional Hospital in Juneau.

COVID-19 vaccinations are now available for anyone 6 months old or older. Juneau Public Health offers vaccine clinics on Wednesdays and Fridays.

In Juneau, call 907-586-6000 or go to www.juneau.org/vaccine  to make an appointment. 

Correction: Cases were down 44% from the previous week’s total.

Juneau is scheduled to get soaked this weekend. The National Weather Service office says they expect the area to get 2.5 inches of rain on average across the Juneau area, so they’re calling for 1 to 3 inches.

“One part of town might get the 1 inch and another part of town might get the 3 inches,” said forecaster Nicole Ferrin. “That’s pretty standard to see a variety across the area.”

The system will come in two waves. Heavy rain will fall Friday night, but then there should be a break with lighter rain early on Saturday morning before picking up again on Saturday afternoon.

The storm is expected to move out on Saturday night.

But that doesn’t mean the forecast for the Ironman Alaska race on Sunday will be high and dry. The forecast is for off-and-on showers, with the heaviest showers coming in the morning.

“We often see some breaks form over Lynn Canal,” said Ferrin. “So perhaps the end of the road could see some sunny breaks in the afternoon, moreso than, say, the back of the valley.”

This weekend’s rain event is the result of an atmospheric river — a long, fat column of moisture aloft that looks a lot like a river in satellite imagery. It hitches a ride on the jet stream, which directs it right at Southeast Alaska.

Local rivers and streams will rise with the heavy rain, but Ferrin says we’re fortunate that we had a break from the rain for a few days ahead of this storm.

“A lot of our rivers and lakes were able to fall over the past two days,” she said.

Most of the time when Juneau sees flooding, the days before are really wet and the ground is already saturated. So, Ferrin says rivers could approach bank-full this weekend but aren’t likely to flood.

Temperatures will be in the mid to upper 50s on Saturday and Sunday. By Tuesday, Juneau might see some sun again.

The 2022 midterm elections are on the horizon. This will be Alaska’s first time using ranked choice voting for statewide races. Are you planning to vote? Do you know how to vote, where to vote, and what you might need to have when you show up to the polls? What if your voter registration is out of date or has a mistake, and you get challenged at the polls — what can you do?

KTOO is part of a new community-powered journalism project to answer those questions and any others you have about how to exercise your right to vote in the upcoming election. Our mission is to provide you with the information you need to vote.

We’re not concerned about how you vote and especially not about who you vote for. We just want to make sure you are armed with the information you need to vote and understand how elections are run and kept secure.

This project is part of the work of America Amplified, an initiative funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to support community engagement journalism in public media. We’re also working with 28 other public media stations across the country to ensure that all eligible American citizens can vote.

Many states, including Alaska, have changed voting regulations since the 2020 general election when concerns about the pandemic led to an expansion of absentee and mail-in voting. This time around the rules are different, and there’s a ton of misinformation and disinformation circulating about elections and election security. We’re here to clear things up.

You can’t change anything unless you choose to participate in the process. We’re asking you to participate by sending us any and all questions about taking part in the upcoming election.

With help from our partners at America Amplified, we’ll answer the questions online, on the air and on social media. We’ll send the answers directly to you as well. If you share your contact information, we may even reach out personally. We can’t do this without you. Gunalchéesh!

Against Juneau’s gray skies this weekend, the bright yellow planes that landed at Juneau International Airport were a spectacle.

They are DeHavilland CL-415EAF firefighting planes — known as Super Scoopers because they can skim the surface of bodies of water and refill their 1,400-gallon tanks. Each has a two-person crew.

The planes are headed to the Fairbanks area to fight fires. They were supposed to leave on Sunday but were weathered in for an extra day. They’re expected to leave Juneau on Monday afternoon.

The Scoopers are owned and deployed by Bridger Aerospace, a company in Montana that contracts with the U.S. Forest Service for firefighting. The planes are specially designed for that purpose and cost $30 million each.

In this newscast:

• A Juneau man is missing
• Abortion rallies planned across the state
• A Juneau bat tested positive for rabies
• A caterpillar is feasting on the Tongass

In this newscast:

• A fire at the Pebble Mine site
• 4 bears killed at an Anchorage campground where unhoused people are staying
• There are indeed bats in Southeast Alaska