KFSK - Petersburg

Monday’s region-wide storm in Southeast Alaska knocked out six U.S. Coast Guard Rescue VHF towers. That means the Coast Guard may not be able to pick up calls for distress on VHF channel 16 in certain parts of Southern Southeast.

Four towers — located on Zarembo, Gravina, Sukkwan, and Duke Islands — are back up and running, but the Coast Guard hasn’t declared them fully capable yet. The towers on Mount McArthur and Mount Robert Baron are still out of commission.

Aaron Hankins is the director of Fire and Emergency Medical Services in Petersburg. He’s helping coordinate the relief effort for a deadly landslide last night in Wrangell.

Hankins also cautions mariners in the region to avoid Sumner and Zimovia straits in order to clear the area for ongoing rescue operations. He says there’s also dangerous debris from the landslide floating in the water, which may not be immediately visible below the surface. That flotsam can damage or even sink small vessels.

Due to the potential gaps in coverage, the Coast Guard is relying on mariners and emergency responders in the region to notify them of mariners in need of help by calling (907)463-2980 if they hear an unanswered distress call on VHF channel 16.

Coast Guard Sector Southeast Alaska will post status updates on the disabled Southeast VHF radio towers online.

Correction: An earlier version of this story gave an incorrect name for Mount Robert Baron.

A U.S. Coast Guard helicopter crashed around 10:40 p.m. Monday night on Read Island in Farragut Bay, about 22 miles northwest of Petersburg. There were four crew members aboard, and all survived.

Two personnel were severely injured in the crash. The other two received only minor injuries.

The crew of the downed Jayhawk helicopter were on their way from Air Station Sitka to assist the Lydia Marie, a commercial crabbing vessel, which was taking on water near Farragut Bay.

Following the helicopter crash, U.S. Coast Guard cutters Elderberry and Douglas Denman responded to the flooding vessel. At the time of the initial response, the crew of the Lydia Marie had contained the flooding to a manageable level.

Several agencies, including Petersburg Search and Rescue and EMS, came to assist the downed helicopter. Air Station Sitka sent another helicopter to take all four crewmembers to Petersburg Medical Center. They were later evacuated to Seattle for a higher level of care.

District 17 spokesperson Petty Officer First Class Shannon Kearney says that the Coast Guard doesn’t have any preliminary information on the cause of the crash.

“We are working to launch a full investigation,” she said. “Any information that we get from the investigation, we’ll be forthcoming with.”

Petersburg Search and Rescue volunteers reported strong winds and snowfall in the area. According to the National Weather Service, there was reduced visibility across the area from rain and snow storms, and wind speeds reached up to 45 miles per hour.

From fishing to logging to mining — dangerous jobs are the engine of Alaska’s economy, and the state has one of the highest workplace fatality rates in the country.

One family in Petersburg, whose only daughter was killed on the job, is trying to change Alaska’s workers compensation laws.

KFSK’s Shelby Herbert has been following the family’s journey, and she explained that the woman who died was not actually working in a dangerous position.

Listen: 

The following transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.

Shelby Herbert: In the summer of 2016, there was a fatal crash that took the lives of two young women who were working for Petersburg’s Parks and Recreation Department — 18-year-old Molly Parks and 19-year-old Marie Giesbrecht. They were riding in a borough van to set up a race for the town’s Fourth of July celebration.

The driver of the van, Chris Allen, suffered a seizure and drove the van through a guardrail. He survived — but Molly and Marie died in the wreck and another passenger was injured. The thing is, Allen’s supervisors were aware of his medical condition before they gave him the keys to the van. He’d had a few seizures working at the front desk.

Molly Parks had no dependents. So her parents were entitled to about $10,000 — just enough to cover funeral costs. But that amount is actually pretty standard nationwide, for people with no dependents.

Michael Fanelli: What does this tell us about the picture of workers’ comp in Alaska?

SH: So, Alaska’s workplace death benefits are pretty much par for the course, when compared to other states. But Alaska’s incident rate — the number of reported injuries and fatalities across the state’s workforce — is significantly higher than the national average. I asked Charles Collins, the Alaska director of Workers’ Compensation about why that is. He said that’s probably a factor of the type of work performed in Alaska, due to our resource development and seafood economies.

MF: But Molly was just a passenger in a regular work vehicle right? She wasn’t working a particularly unsafe job.

SH: That’s right. Even though many Alaskans who die or get injured at work are performing dangerous jobs, any change to existing workers’ comp law could help people who have a claim in the future. And that’s what the Parks family is trying to do now.

MF: Ok, so what part of the law are they trying to change?

SH: They want to make it easier to get compensation from an employer when their negligence results in death or injury to an employee. The courts convicted the driver of the van of manslaughter, but the family lost their wrongful death lawsuit against the borough this spring.

Two of the three judges on that panel ruled that the borough followed Alaska law regarding the Workers’ Compensation Act, on the basis that the allegations against the borough didn’t meet the requirements of an intentional harm claim. So, the Parks family would have had to prove that the Borough intended to hurt the victims of the crash, which they weren’t able to do. A third judge actually dissented from that ruling, saying it was a clear miscarriage of justice, but she was overruled.

MF: So what’s the family’s plan for legislative action?

SH: The family wants to change the state’s exclusivity provision, which in the Parks family’s case, meant they had to try to prove that Molly’s employer meant to hurt her.

The proposed legislation would change the statute to hold employers accountable if their negligence creates a situation that injures or kills an employee. Here’s what Mark Choate, the Parks family’s attorney, said about helping them bring their case to the state Legislature.

“I think it’s our responsibility to show what a really wonderful young woman she was and how much she had to do and how much everyone wanted to be there when she did these things in her life,” Choate said. “And that’s all gone because there was just ridiculously bad behavior — when you give keys to somebody who has an uncontrollable seizure disorder and shouldn’t be driving.”

So this proposed change could make it easier for the high number of Alaska workers who get hurt on the job, or their next of kin, to pursue damages against their employers.

MF: Got it, so what’s next?

SH: The legislative session starts in mid-January, and there’s still a lot up in the air. I spoke with Workers’ Comp Director Charles Collins about the Parks family’s idea. He said he’s seen a lot of public interest in changing Alaska workers’ comp laws in the past, and the state Legislature has taken public comment on amending death benefits. But none of those ideas for reform have ever been added to the books.

The family’s legal team is hoping to be able to get sponsors for the bill in the state House and Senate by mid-December. And if they succeed in getting workers’ comp law changed, they hope it’ll be called “Molly’s Law.”

The Alaska Marine Highway System has too many old ships, and too few people to operate them. In a virtual open house Tuesday, ferry officials kicked off a 20-year plan for rebuilding and modernizing Alaska’s Marine Highway.

Marine director Craig Tornga summarized ongoing issues facing the state’s ferry system, including difficulty with crew recruitment and retention.

“All summer long, we’ve had a few no-sail days across the fleet due to crew shortage just because we didn’t have enough personnel to meet the manning requirements of our certificate of inspection from the Coast Guard,” Tornga said. “So that continues to plague us.”

Aging vessels are another problem for the ferry system, which currently operates five vessels over 45 years old. In August, the ferry system released an interim plan outlining capital and operations improvements through 2026. The plan includes building three new vessels, including one to replace the 59-year-old Tustumena and a hybrid or electric vessel to replace the Lituya.

“These reliability issues are due to age, and they’re not going to improve for us until we build replacement vessels,” Tornga said.

Tornga said that the trajectory of the 60-year-old Matanuska is still in question.

“Since I’ve joined, we’ve held meetings for the Coast Guard, and we don’t have a determination yet to the extent of the upgrades to retain SOLAS until we know the condition and the safety of the hull,” Tornga said.

Consultant Kristen Kissinger, who is working with the ferry system on the long-range plan, emphasized that data and recommendations from communities will guide this stage of the planning process.

“Really having a database of just all the information about what kinds of things are present in a community, what a community might need, what are the gaps, what’s missing, and what that means for how they use ferry service,” she said.

She pointed attendees of the open house to an online survey open through Nov. 7 and encouraged them to attend an Alaska Marine Highway Operations Board meeting, as well as to submit written comments.

Work to develop the long-range plan will continue through mid-2024, and ferry users are encouraged to share input throughout the process.

Hunters have reached a new high for the month-long moose hunt in Central Southeast Alaska: 141 bulls. The new record is nine more than the previous record harvest, which was set in 2021: 132 bulls.

The hunt was open Sept. 15 through Oct. 15. Hunters had until Friday to report their kills to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

Most of this season’s moose — 61 bulls — were harvested on Kupreanof, which is where hunters consistently rack up the most moose over the years. The second highest harvest — 31 bulls — came from Kuiu Island.

Frank Robbins, who manages the hunt area for the state, said that’s a remarkable change for the island, compared to the last few decades.

“It wasn’t that long ago when there was virtually no harvest of moose on Kuiu Island,” said Robbins. “Then, in the last six years, it’s kind of seen a skyrocket harvest.”

Petersburg’s Mitkof Island was another outlier. Twelve moose were also taken on the island, when only three bulls were harvested.

Over the past decade, moose hunters have set several records in the region, called RM038. Robbins says that’s because the moose are moving in. A couple decades ago, there were very few of them in the region — and the hunt was almost entirely relegated to the mainland. But over the years, he says he’s seen more moose cropping up on remote islands.

“The trend, lately, has been the distribution that gets expanded across Kupreanof into Kuiu, which largely accounts for the increase in the harvest over time,” said Robbins. “That’s sort of the big change. The harvest has sort of shifted westward. The moose have expanded from the mainland to these island habitats over time, and slowly increased in numbers. And that’s reflected in the harvest.”

Over the course of the month, hunters told state managers that they saw many total moose — meaning bulls, cows, and calves — across the hunt area. Robbins says that bodes well for future hunts. T

There’s a nearly 100-year-old wooden boat in Petersburg that’s become a staple of the tight-knit local music scene. Musicians in town have a few performance spaces to choose from, a lot of them in bars. But the crew of the Roedda brings a unique option with them when they come to town — transforming the boat’s fish hold into an improvised sound stage.

It was a brisk Thursday night in September in Petersburg’s South Harbor. The chill was already starting to set in, and the people were starting to pour out of town. Alex Deacon is the captain of the Roedda. But tonight, she’s also the master of ceremonies for an open mic on board — the last of the season.

“We got all sorts of accommodations, lots of debauchery — but good heathens, we are!” Deacon called out to a crowd gathered on the deck of the Roedda. “We don’t have amps, but we have music and people who want to play, so get comfortable — and there’s instruments down there. None of us are perfect. I would love to just encourage anyone who’s brave enough to volunteer. Anybody…?”

At Deacon’s invitation, a handful of people started tuning their guitars, banjos, and mandolins. The Roedda is an 80-foot wooden tender boat painted black and white. It’s used for moving seafood and ice between fishing grounds and the local processor, OBI Seafoods. The fish is stored in large holds below deck. But tonight, that space is for creating sound.

Husband and wife duo Robyn and Daniel Cardenas were the first to climb down into the hold using a narrow metal ladder. Spectators on deck could just see the tops of their heads. The music bounced off the steel walls, reverberating up and out towards the audience.

The rest of the boat has a lot of character too. Roedda crew member Aaron Gore-Rife — who is also Deacon’s partner — said the crew likes to think that of all the creaks and pops the old boat makes is just her “putting her two cents” into the conversation.

“Sometimes, you’ll be making a point — and she’ll go off,” said Gore-Rife. “And as I see it, the boat agrees with me!”

“She purrs!” said Deacon.

The Roedda was built in 1931. In addition to fish, she’s held mail and freight in her hold throughout her long life. According to Deacon, she also put out a house fire in Sitka sometime in the late 30s with her deck hose.

Deacon said being a part of that legacy is important to her.

“You’re talking about 96 years of different people maintaining this piece of machinery,” said Deacon. “We want to do the company and the history of the boat proud by carrying on the same habits.”

But the Roedda of today is breaking with the past in some ways. Deacon is proud to be one of just a handful of female captains in the local fishing fleet. And the crew is starting new traditions – like the fish hold open mic. And they don’t just host the music — they’re making it too.

“There’s a mixture of jazz, of country, of ragtime…” said Deacon. “The fun part is that playing around with other musicians kind of molds itself into something unexpected.”

Gore-Rife said the band is pretty resourceful — they like to use what they have onboard.

“What we like to do is we create a lot of junk instruments,” said Gore-Rife. “Just instruments that are random things that you can put into someone’s hands, and anyone can pick it up like. Like the gut bucket!”

True to its name, the gut bucket used to hold actual fish guts.

“Yeah, it had a job,” said Deacon. “Now it has a different job.”

Now, it’s an instrument, played by many who come aboard.

“I’m pretty sure it’s derived from the old washtub bass,” said Gore-Rife. “It’s just a way to get music in people’s hands — it’s not a big fancy instrument.”

“It’s very easy to build,” Deacon added.

“All you need is a five gallon bucket, a washer, any kind of string with some stretch to it, and a stick — and that’s it,” said Gore-Rife. “And then [you] just kind of find wherever you feel most comfortable pulling it and tweaking it, and then you get this lovely… THOOM.“

In fitting with Roedda’s DIY theme, Gore-Rife uses an old cigarette lighter to pluck the string.

Deacon said the gut bucket is just one of many manifestations of the crew’s creativity, fueled by life at sea. They all take turns practicing on wheel watch: the window of time when they’re running their product to town, which typically takes 12 to 24 hours.

“Alaska offers a vast amount of inspiration from the scenery, so it can really help with art,” said Deacon. “I think some of my best music has come from being on a boat for too long.”

That artistic space Deacon and her crew have cultivated is just a temporary one. The crew is hanging up their guitars — and their buckets — for the season. And guests say they’ll miss being part of the weird little community around the Roedda’s fish hold.

“Well, singing in a fish hold for an open mic night is pretty darn special,” said visiting musician Tonia Whitethorn, who is also the vocalist for local band Rockfish. “[It] doesn’t seem like that happens in very many places, right? Welcome to Alaska.”

Bubba Schill is a regular at the Roedda.

“I want to tell you how happy I am to be playing music with all these folks down here on this boat,” said Schill. “[I come here] every time they got an open mic! [It’s] where the music’s at. I love the fact that… you can’t always just go be yourself in a musical, artistic, creative environment. And here, you can. So, accolades.”

Deacon said there’s no rest for the useful. She and Aaron will spend the winter in Washington state retrofitting a short bus as a travel home. And the Roedda will sit at the docks, songless, until summer returns.