Posted: 4/29/2026 7:36:21 PM EDT
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One ran out of heating oil and propane a few weeks ago and the river has yet to break-up. Be another couple of weeks at least. (In-laws and many cousins live there) Another village has run out diesel fuel for the generators and poor maintenance has killed one of the generators. Still another is short on gas and heating. Plus poor maintenance on their generators keeps causing problems. Villages normally get fuel barged in once in spring while water is high and late fall. Sometimes the barges cannot get in during low water. The expensive fuel is flown in by dc-3. Who wants to live in Bush Alaska. 
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Originally Posted By akcaribouhunter: One ran out of heating oil and propane a few weeks ago and the river has yet to break-up. Be another couple of weeks at least. (In-laws and many cousins live there) Another village has run out diesel fuel for the generators and poor maintenance has killed one of the generators. Still another is short on gas and heating. Plus poor maintenance on their generators keeps causing problems. Villages normally get fuel barged in once in spring while water is high and late fall. Sometimes the barges cannot get in during low water. The expensive fuel is flown in by dc-3. Who wants to live in Bush Alaska. I am sure current gas and fuel prices will help the situation. 
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Originally Posted By ar-jedi:
SO MUCH WIN IN ONE POST IT COULD CRASH ARFCOM !!!
SO MUCH WIN IN ONE POST IT COULD CRASH ARFCOM !!!
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Originally Posted By R2point0: Generators on a mini-grid? I'm curious, who runs them, takes care of maintenance, etc? A few do share power but have backups. Distance and the land make it very hard to run power lines to villages. One co-op is called Avec (Alaska village co-op). They own and train locals to do maintenance and deal with certain power lines/transformers. They do send people from Anchorage or Fairbanks but weather can play a huge factor. Most other villages have their own and do maintenance themselves with help from Avec and state of Alaska. (some villages are very bad at maintenance and been bailed out by the state and feds.) But state and feds are telling them no at times. |
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Originally Posted By akcaribouhunter: Almost every village has their own generators. A few do share power but have backups. Distance and the land make it very hard to run power lines to villages. One co-op is called Avec (Alaska village co-op). They own and train locals to do maintenance and deal with certain power lines/transformers. They do send people from Anchorage or Fairbanks but weather can play a huge factor. Most other villages have their own and do maintenance themselves with help from Avec and state of Alaska. (some villages are very bad at maintenance and been bailed out by the state and feds.) But state and feds are telling them no at times. |
"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson
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Originally Posted By Cacinok: My son is up in that area and he said that it's been a brutally cold year. IIRC, he said it snowed last week (may have been the week before). We had snow and rain mix yesterday. A few in one village are out of heating oil and are begging for any wood. Dangerous to be out on snogo right now. But around the village there is brush that will heat a house. |
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Originally Posted By akcaribouhunter: Winter was a bit cooler but not brutal here on the Kuskokwim. We had snow and rain mix yesterday. A few in one village are out of heating oil and are begging for any wood. Dangerous to be out on snogo right now. But around the village there is brush that will heat a house. I would definitely have backups for my backups for my backups in that area. Especially for heat. |
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Originally Posted By Cacinok: I would definitely have backups for my backups for my backups in that area. Especially for heat. |
"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson
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No flames intended here... I always think people who rely on the grid or on continual just in time delivery of oil, propane, etc are fools. Shit happens For decades I've been warning friends and family: storms happen. Failures happen. Don't rely exclusively on the grid or on fuel deliveries/ availability. We live on the Can/US border. Have backup hear. Some listen. .most don't. Alaskan villages that rely on fuel delivery, seasonally, to power generators... That's a recipe for disaster. Odd question: are they heated electrically? Ive seen it in northern Quebec. Whole little cluster of buildings, all reliant on a big old generator. I'm sorry for those about to go without. But it seems to be more a lack of planning than anything else. Did it not occur to residents, who live at the end of a VERY fragile supply chain, that such a thing could occur? |
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Originally Posted By frozenny: No flames intended here... I always think people who rely on the grid or on continual just in time delivery of oil, propane, etc are fools. Shit happens For decades I've been warning friends and family: storms happen. Failures happen. Don't rely exclusively on the grid or on fuel deliveries/ availability. We live on the Can/US border. Have backup hear. Some listen. .most don't. Alaskan villages that rely on fuel delivery, seasonally, to power generators... That's a recipe for disaster. Odd question: are they heated electrically? Ive seen it in northern Quebec. Whole little cluster of buildings, all reliant on a big old generator. I'm sorry for those about to go without. But it seems to be more a lack of planning than anything else. Did it not occur to residents, who live at the end of a VERY fragile supply chain, that such a thing could occur? |
"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson
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Originally Posted By frozenny: No flames intended here... I always think people who rely on the grid or on continual just in time delivery of oil, propane, etc are fools. Shit happens For decades I've been warning friends and family: storms happen. Failures happen. Don't rely exclusively on the grid or on fuel deliveries/ availability. We live on the Can/US border. Have backup hear. Some listen. .most don't. Alaskan villages that rely on fuel delivery, seasonally, to power generators... That's a recipe for disaster. Odd question: are they heated electrically? Ive seen it in northern Quebec. Whole little cluster of buildings, all reliant on a big old generator. I'm sorry for those about to go without. But it seems to be more a lack of planning than anything else. Did it not occur to residents, who live at the end of a VERY fragile supply chain, that such a thing could occur? Has always been this way forever. The fuel farms can only hold so much fuel and only have so much money to buy fuel. Sometimes the villages can only buy so much. Sometimes there is no snow so getting wood is very hard. Other times too much snow. The brush can be burned but it takes a lot and does not burn well. It is very hard now to store extra gas and heating oil because of theft. Rural Alaska has pretty unique way of living. Same with Rural Canada. Not everyone understands. |
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Originally Posted By akcaribouhunter: Bush Alaska uses heating oil and wood heat. Has always been this way forever. The fuel farms can only hold so much fuel and only have so much money to buy fuel. Sometimes the villages can only buy so much. Sometimes there is no snow so getting wood is very hard. Other times too much snow. The brush can be burned but it takes a lot and does not burn well. It is very hard now to store extra gas and heating oil because of theft. Rural Alaska has pretty unique way of living. Same with Rural Canada. Not everyone understands. So it’s not really SHTF. It’s just a normal spring. |
"It behooves every man to remember that the work of the critic is of altogether secondary importance, and that, in the end, progress is accomplished by the man who does things."
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt
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Rivers and lakes on the Kuskokwim River are all open. Finally some warmer temps now. Some of the houses in the village ran out of heating oil and panicked about getting wood. (there was plenty of dead and dry brush around the village).  Will be a few weeks before the barges get going. But another big thing has happened. One of the fuel suppliers here will run out of gas in a week or two. Also very close to running out of heating oil. Not sure what the other two suppliers have left. |