Staff Reports
Only in Alaska do you get a two‑fer: a raven takes out a town’s electricity and a humpback whale sinks a family’s sailboat. These aren’t feel‑good viral clips — they are reminders that nature doesn’t care about our plans, and that the people we trust with public safety and infrastructure sometimes treat common sense like a controversial opinion.
Raven knocks out Girdwood — and that should make utilities squirm
Chugach Electric told reporters a raven “flew into the transformer” and made contact with live equipment, causing a cascading series of failures that left nearly 1,900 people in Girdwood without power until crews worked through the evening to restore service. Julie Hasquet, communications manager at Chugach Electric, explained that the bird’s impact damaged control wiring all the way into the substation. Translation: one bird, a lot of broken gear, and an expensive, avoidable headache for ratepayers.
Whale sinks anchored sailboat in Glacier Bay — family survives
Out in Glacier Bay, Tania Lewis, a wildlife biologist for Glacier Bay National Park, told the same kind of unnerving story: a “giant thud” in the night, then their 1960s sailboat taking on water and going down. The family used an emergency backpack, made it to shore, and later worked with rescuers. Park biologists collected whale skin samples to try to identify the humpback. The good news: no lives lost. The bad news: a hole in the keel and a sober reminder that a 40‑ton animal can wreck your plans without meaning to.
Practical fixes, not panels and press conferences
Both incidents have a simple lesson: plan for the obvious. Utilities already know animals cause outages — squirrels and birds are frequent culprits — yet too many transformers and critical control points remain exposed. Bird guards, insulated control wiring, and protected substations aren’t sexy, but they work. Likewise, boaters in whale country need better guidance and basic gear: anchor where animals aren’t feeding, carry emergency communications, and train for swift water and night evacuations.
How the public should respond — and who should pay attention
Politicians and agencies love study groups and glossy reports. Meanwhile, homeowners lose refrigerators and businesses lose sales during outages. The Coast Guard, park biologists, and local utilities should coordinate quick public guidance when marine feeding activity spikes and when wildlife risks threaten infrastructure. Ratepayers shouldn’t foot the bill for more risk when modest upgrades could blunt the cost of the next raven‑triggered cascade or the next whale‑strike salvage bill.
Alaska gives us wild stories for a reason: it’s wild. Still, common sense and simple engineering can keep that wildness from becoming a disaster. Protect the transformers. Teach boaters how to handle whales. And for heaven’s sake, don’t wait for the next viral clip before someone in charge stops shrugging and starts fixing things.
