KRBD - Ketchikan

There are no tumbleweeds blowing through the streets of Southeast Alaska towns, but, the region has received less precipitation than usual over the past nine months.

The National Weather Service presented a webinar this week about Southeast Alaska’s drought.

Southeast Alaska is the kind of place where you can get a lot of rain but still be in the middle of a drought.

It’s home to the Tongass National Forest, the largest of about a half-dozen temperate rainforests in the world.

Communities scattered through the lush evergreen forest measure rainfall in feet. Ketchikan is one of the wettest, with about 12 feet of annual average precipitation.

“Drought is one of those things that, it seems like, oh, everybody knows what a drought is,” National Weather Service climate scientist Rick Thoman said. “But the more you think about it, the harder it gets to pin down.”

A drought is a deficiency of precipitation over an extended period of time.

The deficiency level and the time period can vary, Thoman said.

Whether or not it becomes a “drought” also depends on how much demand there is on water resources – by people and the environment.

Considering all those variables, Southeast Alaska is in the middle of a drought.

It started last fall, following a wetter-than-normal summer.

Ketchikan, for example, received record rainfall levels in August.

“Starting in September, we see that precipitation in Ketchikan totaled a little over 11 inches,” Thoman said. “That doesn’t sound like a drought to me, being a Fairbanksan. Sounds like an awful lot of precipitation. But by Ketchikan standards, that was actually below normal.”

Normal in September is closer to 15-16 inches.

“October, again, over 11 inches of rain, but that’s well below normal in Ketchikan in October, followed by well-below normal precipitation in November, as well,” Thoman said.

October usually sees 15-25 inches of rain; a typical November is slightly under that, but similar. November last year, though, was about 8 inches.

December and January went back to average levels, Thoman said, but then February and March were dry — again by rainforest standards.

All that means overall precipitation in Southeast Alaska since fall has been below normal. By a lot.

“September to February: The driest of record in this analysis since, this would be since 1925-26 — southern Southeast has not had a drier September to February.”

October to March also was the driest for its time frame.

Rainfall in April and May improved the situation somewhat, but a deficiency remains.

National Weather Service Juneau senior hydrologist Aaron Jacobs said that deficiency has had an effect on the region.

Hydroelectric power generation, for example, was hit hard.

“The main reason for this type of an impact is the lack of precipitation in the wet season,” he said. “If Southeast Alaska doesn’t get that rain in that October, November and into December time frame, there could be deficits in water levels that may not be able to recover.”

When hydroelectric dams don’t have enough water, communities need to use more-expensive diesel power.

Jacobs said a drought also affects community drinking water supplies, seafood processers and the natural habitat of the entire forest.

Salmon have a difficult time spawning when streams don’t have enough water, Jacobs said, and yellow cedar mortality increases when rainfall is lower than normal.

What will happen next? Thoman said there isn’t a clear signal at this time.

“We do have increasing signs of an El Nino developing for this fall and winter, and that often has a significant precipitation signal in Southeast Alaska,” he said. “At this point I would say as we move towards the wet season for Southeast, stay tuned.”

Recently retired Ketchikan High School teacher and local pastor Doug Edwards has been arrested and charged with three counts of sexual abuse of a minor.

According to the complaint filed in court by police Detective Devin Miller, the charges stem from alleged incidents last fall with a 14-year-old girl. She knew Edwards through his roles as a pastor with First Baptist Church and as a culinary arts teacher at Ketchikan High School.

Police said Edwards admitted to the crimes.

Ketchikan Police Sgt. Andy Berntson said the investigation started in mid-April, when the girl’s father approached police to report that his daughter told him and her mother about the incidents.

“These things do sometimes take some time,” he said. “There are a lot of different investigative techniques you can use. You certainly want as much information available before you present it for prosecution and look at charges.”

The girl also spoke to police, according to the complaint. In her statement, she provided details of multiple encounters. In each, Edwards allegedly reached into the girl’s shirt, under her bra and groped the girl’s chest.

One encounter allegedly happened in the basement of the church when she was alone, playing the piano. Another allegedly happened at Edwards’ home, where she had gone to watch a movie with another girl. A third encounter allegedly took place in the storage area of the high school’s culinary arts room.

According to the complaint, Edwards admitted to police that the encounters took place, and that he had groped the girl’s breast. Police said that Edwards also admitted doing the same thing to another young girl.

Berntson said police are aware of the impact of these kinds of charges to everyone involved, and are careful to make sure they are confident about the allegations.

“In all cases you want to be sure, but certainly there’s a higher level of scrutiny on higher-profile cases and a higher level of crimes, which this is both,” he said. “It’s certainly going to have a big impact on the community as well as the suspect and victim.”

In a news release late Monday, police said the investigation is continuing. Berntson said that’s partly because of the other girl Edwards identified, along with any other information that might come forward as a result of the charges.

Berntson said he can’t say whether the school district was aware of the investigation before this week, but it isn’t common for police to involve anyone else in an investigation like this one.

Edwards had his first court hearing Tuesday morning in Ketchikan Superior Court. He was released on a $10,000 unsecured bond, with conditions that he surrender his passport and remain in his home except for court hearings and to meet with an attorney. Edwards also is not to have contact with girls under 16.

His next hearing is scheduled June 22.

Until late last week, it appeared that House District 36 Rep. Dan Ortiz of Ketchikan would be unopposed in his bid for re-election. But, two last-minute candidates filed right before the deadline Friday to appear on the Aug. 21 primary election ballot.

Trevor Shaw is the Republican candidate and Ghert Abbott is the Democrat. Both are unopposed in their respective primaries, so will face Ortiz, an independent, in the Nov. 6 general election.

Trevor Shaw said he decided to run because nobody else would.

“I had been hoping for quite a while that someone else was going to run,” he said. “It’s too important to kind of let it go, to kind of leave things as they are.”

Shaw is president of the Ketchikan School Board, and said he enjoys keeping his political involvement as local as possible. But, he said he also wants to make sure the public has a choice.

“For me, the decision-making process was, ‘OK, is the status quo working for our community?’ And I don’t believe it is,” he said.

Shaw opposes any broad-based tax until the state fixes what he said is a disparity in Alaska’s current tax system.

“I don’t think there should be new taxes until everyone is paying their fair share,” he said. “Alaska is the only state where the entire state isn’t incorporated into cities and boroughs. I think that’s something that needs to be addressed.”

Shaw was referring to the required local contribution for public schools that municipalities must pay, based on property tax values. Unincorporated communities are exempt from that requirement.

“If that was made statewide on an equitable basis, that would result in approximately another $200 million in new revenue for the State of Alaska,” he said.

He also said the state could find ways to reduce spending before considering taxes, such as private-public partnerships and spending cuts.

In the past two House District 36 elections, outside groups supporting the Republican candidate sent out negative campaign flyers and advertisements targeting Rep. Ortiz.

Shaw said he can’t control what an outside group does, but he plans to run a positive campaign based on issues.

“I’m going to make that case very strongly, very publicly, and hoping that outside interference is hopefully to support my candidacy and promote my ideas, and not anything negative,” he said.

Shaw is the District 36 Republican Party chairman. He works as the administrative manager and director of government affairs for Ward Cove Group, a business at the site of the former Ketchikan Pulp Co. at Ward Cove.

Democratic candidate Ghert Abbott wasn’t available for an interview at deadline Monday.

A floatplane crashed Friday afternoon near Dora Bay on Prince of Wales Island. All seven people aboard survived.

According to a Ketchikan Fire Department statement, the aircraft had mechanical problems and crash landed.  Fire Chief Abner Hoage said emergency responders were contacted at about 12:45 p.m. Friday saying multiple people were being brought to the Taquan Air dock in Ketchikan.

“There were six (passengers) onboard the aircraft at the time that it crashed and one pilot. All seven were brought back to Ketchikan, and after medical evaluation we ultimately transported two of those passengers to the Ketchikan hospital for further evaluation with minor injuries.”

Hoage said the other five were released at the scene.

The plane is with RdM, a company in Ketchikan that operates Alaska Seaplane Tours (which is unrelated to Juneau-based Alaska Seaplanes). Hoage said the passengers and pilot were transported from the crash site to Ketchikan by an RdM plane and a plane from Taquan.

Multiple ambulances from the Ketchikan Fire Department, the North Tongass Volunteer Fire Department and South Tongass Volunteer Fire Department responded. Additional information was not available by story deadline.

A representative from RdM declined to comment.

Two people were severely injured in a single-vehicle accident early Wednesday morning on Stedman Street near Bayview Cemetery.

Sgt. Eric Mattson of the Ketchikan Police Department said the call came in about 3:40 a.m.

“The officers that responded on scene found that it had impacted a telephone pole, or a power pole,” he said. “And found two occupants, a driver and one passenger, both had what appeared to be serious injuries.”

Mattson said police called Ketchikan Fire Department, which responded and transported the two occupants to the hospital. He said both were medevaced for further treatment.

“At this point, no arrests or anything like that, obviously, because of injuries, but it’s still under investigation because of intoxication,” he said.

Mattson and the fire department declined to name the two occupants. However, Mattson said the driver is a 37-year-old man, and the passenger is a 39-year-old woman. They were in a 1993 Ford SUV.

Mattson said it’s not clear whether they were wearing seatbelts at the time of the crash. He said the car hit the pole hard enough to shift it, and Ketchikan Public Utilities crews were called to check and stabilize the pole.

A Ketchikan man and woman who skipped town earlier this month after they were charged with felonies related to drugs and weapons were taken into custody Monday afternoon on Prince of Wales Island.

According to the online Alaska State Troopers dispatch report, Craig Police Department received a tip on Monday about the location of Jeremy Ellis and Nicki Casey.

Troopers and Craig police responded at about 3:45 p.m. to the residence. The couple was arrested without incident, according to the troopers’ report.

According to court records, Ellis failed to appear for a hearing on May 1st, and a warrant was issued at that time. Casey failed to appear for a May 3rd hearing, and a warrant was issued for her, as well.

They both face felony drugs and weapons charges. Ellis has an additional charge of felony theft.