A ferry attempting to moor in the Southeast Alaska village of Kake on Saturday was forced to return to Juneau after a cable that secures it to the dock broke.
It left many Kake residents stuck in the capital city along with their vehicles and perishable foods like turkeys and vegetables ahead of Thanksgiving.
They were aboard the M/V Hubbard ferry, which traveled from Juneau and was supposed to moor in Kake on Saturday when it ran into a bit of a problem.
Danielle Tessen, spokesperson for the Alaska Marine Highway System, said the issue was caused by unexpectedly high-speed winds.
“So what happened is the vessel mooring wire — which is what we use to attach or secure the vessel to the dock — had parted, which means it broke,” she said. “So, on Saturday, that vessel was unable to dock and let the folks off, and had to go back to Juneau.”
That meant the passengers had to quickly find lodging and a place to store their items and vehicles until they could make it home. In the interim, the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska quickly offered to provide a connex as a temporary storage solution to keep perishable items from going bad.
Kake is a remote village of about 500 residents that doesn’t have easy access to goods without flying or boating them in. Tessen said they’re working hard to try to get the cable fixed as soon as possible.
“We’re focused on fixing that vessel mooring wire before Wednesday, so people can have their vehicles, which are filled of Thanksgiving goods that come home, and have before Thanksgiving,” she said. “If we’re unable to do that by Wednesday, it looks like Saturday is the day that people’s vehicles will be able to travel on the Hubbard back home.”
The cable breaking also meant people trying to board the ferry were stuck in Kake, including two traveling high school volleyball teams from Gustavus and Prince of Wales Island.
Anji Gallanos, the superintendent of Kake City School District, said the community heavily relies on the ferry being consistent and showing up, especially for sports. In the wintertime, the ferry only visits twice a month.
“We loved hosting these games, but as you can imagine, having 36 extra visitors in a town with no restaurant and no real services for those kids meant that our community did a wonderful job of collaborating to bring in meals and food and really just extra support for those kids,” she said. “But all of this hinged on the fact that we really needed to have the ferry show up.”
All students were able to fly back home by seaplane, and Tessen said it’s working on a case-by-case basis to offer reimbursements to people impacted by the situation.
Gallanos said for years the community has advocated for the ferry to stop in Kake more often during the winter. She said this weekend’s dilemma highlights why.
“We continue to advocate, and we continue to work with the Alaska Marine Highway System of the Department of Transportation to ensure that we can get more ferry service,” she said. “But it’s been an ongoing need to continually advocate for ferry support that we so desperately rely on in this community.”
According to Tessen, Kake’s ferry terminal is scheduled to get upgrades as part of the Statewide Transportation Improvement Plan in the coming years.