The problems in Cordova, Alaska, include a shovel shortage. TODAY's Al Roker reports.
By Miguel Llanos, msnbc.com
It's gonna get worse before it gets better. That's the message in Cordova, Alaska, where rain followed overnight snow on Wednesday -- further compacting the heavy snowpack already smothering the town on Prince William Sound.
"Overnight it started raining," Jennifer Gibbins, editor of The Cordova Times, told msnbc.com. "That's good news and bad news" since while it melts some snow it hardens the pack. The near-term forecast isn't any better: "Snow-rain, snow-rain, snow-rain," she said.
Even with 57 National Guard and 20 Coast Guard?troops helping, the town of 2,200 has been losing the battle with what?Cordova has dubbed "Snowpocalypse 2012" -- nearly 15 feet of snow from Nov. 1 to last Sunday, and around two more feet since then. It's also gotten more than 44 inches of rain.
Jennifer Gibbins / The Cordova Times
This snow-covered home in Cordova, Alaska, is also the headquarters for the Cordova Times. Editor and homeowner Jennifer Gibbins took it on Saturday and posted it on the weekly's Facebook page.
"An amazing about of work was done Monday but it's still just a dent," Gibbins said, adding that locals are worried about the rest of winter, when the town typically gets most of its snow. "It's only the first?part of January and that's what really a lot of the concern has been," she said. "We're all just kind of exhausted from all the shoveling."
Several homes and other buildings were damaged or destroyed by heavy snow that collapsed rooftops in recent days. Classes were closed for the rest of the week, in part because of heavy snow on and around school buildings. "The high school today finally saw daylight (on the baseball field side)," Schools Superintendent Jim Nygaard said in a statement Tuesday. "The goal for tomorrow will be to continue to dig out the backside of the high school."
Conditions overnight were not helpful either.?Avalanche conditions were described as extreme and strong gusts that had started during the day, causing white-out conditions,?continued all night.
With crews and heavy equipment trying to move the snow,?the town government?urged parents to keep their children home. "Please keep children off of all snowpiles, snow berms and away from heavy equipment," it said on its website. "Visibility with all the snow piles is very limited."
Those piles are everywhere, including around Gibbins' home, which is also headquarters for the Cordova Times. "My house is buried," she said, adding that she climbed a pile and found herself "walking on the same plain as the peak of my roof."
Cordova has also come up against an unexpected problem: a shortage of shovels, especially the kind that don't break when trying to dig out of compact snow.
"Part of it is, the light fluffy snow is no more," The Associated Press quoted Cordova spokesman Allen Marquette as saying.?"It's the heavier, wetter stuff. A lot of these shovels are plastic. These are big strong people, and so you're bound to have some equipment that gets damaged and broken. So we need to keep replenishing and repairing and getting those back out on the line so they can get the work done."
Shovel reinforcements should arrive over the weekend but the shortage does raise the issue of preparedness.
"It's ironic, isn't it? The state of Alaska ? you'd think they'd be ahead of the game. It's those logistical things you just don't plan on, or you don't think is going to be an issue," said Marquette.
Gibbins, for her part, is trying to keep the weekly Times going, but last week's edition still hadn't been distributed even though it was printed on Friday. She has, however, been busy on the?weekly's Facebook page, especially posting photos.
As for the next print edition, she said, "it will be all about snow."
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Source: http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/11/10114143-rain-worsens-alaska-towns-snowpocalypse
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