Blackhawk helicopter brings electrician to village to make repairs.
KNOM, Nome: A power outage last week on Little Diomede brought help from the Alaska National Guard when regularly scheduled helicopter service to the remote island community was down for maintenance.
Carolyn Heflin with the Bering Straits School District says the community on Diomede lost power sometime last Tuesday or early Wednesday of last week. The power remained out through Thursday morning, and that’s when BSSD looked for solutions. The district contract electrician Lee Hewitt, who was already working on another job for BSSD in Shishmaref, made his way to Nome but wasn’t able to fly on to Diomede—as local charter Erickson Aviation’s helicopter was down for maintenance.
Heflin with BSSD says the district recalled a similar community-wide power outage in Savoonga back in 2010, which saw frozen pipes and other issues after as much as 90 percent of the community lost power. Heflin said BSSD moved to do what it could to prevent a similar situation … and with regular flights not planned until Monday, the district reached out to state emergency services.
Diomede had been without power for more than 24 hours when the Guard launched a Black Hawk helicopter out of Nome Friday. The helicopter carried Hewitt, the electrician, the final 140 miles to Diomede. The Blackhawk crew was back in Nome later that day.
BSSD reports Diomede residents were gathering in the community school, which had food and water supplies was all as emergency generators.
Hewitt, the electrician, got to work and was able to restore power around 4 o’clock Friday afternoon.