Crews

It's been more than a week since Kyle Komok, a Teller man, was reported missing during Western Alaska's massive winter storm. Search crews are still combing the area looking for any sign of Komok, and his family is holding onto hope that he will be found. Komok's mother, Rhonda, says troopers along with search-and-rescue crews from Teller and Brevig Mission have drilled more than 75 holes in the ice trying to find any sign of Komok. She says the local search crews will continue until funding runs out. “I'm just trying to take it one day at a time and keep up with the phone calls and hope to God that they find him,” Rhonda Komok said by phone from Kodiak.

Anchorage police say one woman was severely injured when huge chunks of ice hit her truck while she was driving on the Seward Highway Friday afternoon. Crews are now closely monitoring the potential for more ice to fall. According to APD, ice from mountains above the Seward crushed 32-year-old Amanda Lawton's truck just before 4:30 p.m. while she was heading north at roughly Mile 113 of the highway near Beluga Point. Officers on the scene said two additional ice falls occurred while emergency crews and good Samaritans came to help the driver, but nobody else was hurt.

It's that time of year again. If you don't want trouble for your tires, you're driving slowly, swerving or taking caution to avoid potholes around town. The city says the change in warm and cold temperatures brings the freezing and thawing cycle of water, which creates and pushes cracks open in the road. “There's some sort of a crack in the asphalt which allows water to penetrate the asphalt, and once it gets below the asphalt surface it washes the sub-grade away and creates a depression,” said Dan Southard with City Maintenance and Operations.

Bulldozer crews are on the clock this Independence Day, trying to break down mountains of snow, which still tower over some parts of Anchorage after a winter of record snowfall. At American Landscaping, along C st. in South Anchorage, crews “roll” the surface of their pile every day or so, scraping off a top layer of gravel, which can insulate the snow, slowing its melt. “I don't know how high it is now, looks like about 80 feet,” said Glenn Ball, owner of American Landscaping, as he looked up at what he estimated to be about 280,000 cubic yards of leftovers.

Whether it's trolling the depths of Alaska's oceans for gold or chasing down outlaws along interior highways; the last frontier has become the first choice for reality TV shows, documentaries and movies in recent years. Some of those filming crews were lured to the state through a tax credit program signed into law by former Governor Sarah Palin in 2008.  Representative Bill Stoltze (R-Chugiak) wants to end the program and he's filed legislation to do so. "Tax credits is really almost an erroneous term,” said Stolze.  “It's a tax subsidy in a state where the industry doesn't pay anything, it's really the state writing the check, it's really just called a tax subsidy.

The State of Alaska is teaming up with Anchorage officials to recover from the devastation of Tuesday's massive windstorm. While an official emergency declaration hasn't yet been issued, the state is providing its largest city with assets to aid with the cleanup. State Rep. Lance Pruitt and Anchorage Assembly member Adam Trombley held a press conference Saturday morning to announce the new efforts to help residents now and in the future. The roar of a chainsaw is a tough sound to escape anywhere in East Anchorage.

Some members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) in Alaska are headed east to help repair damage caused by Hurricane Sandy nearly three months ago. After the superstorm the IBEW sent out a call for help and so far, between 12 to 15 Alaskan members have responded. IBEW says crews will be installing poles and stringing power lines from pole to pole in storm-damaged areas. The workers will have to deal with power lines that have been hit by trees or have fallen to the ground, as well as collapsed buildings.

People from all over the world visit Alyeska Ski Resort to ring in the New Year, but those on top of Alyeska Resort on New Years Eve, experienced a little more than what they paid for. One guest suffered minor injuries when strong wind gusts caused the resort's tram to hit the upper tower around 7:20 p.m. Monday night. Two guests and three employees were in the first car and two employees were in the second car. According to the resort, 80 guests dining at Seven Glaciers Restaurant had to be transported via chairlift and by snowcat as crews inspected both the tram and the twoer.

Anchorage residents can expect a spike in temperatures, a warm air system is on it's way to Alaska and it's bringing snow, and possibly rain. It can be tough to predict exactly what the storm will bring because a couple of degrees can mean the difference between snow and freezing rain, according to Channel 2 meteorologist Mitch Sego. "Worst case scenario, we get a little bit of rain during the morning commute," Sego said. Across town, people are keeping an eye on the weather, wondering what it will bring.

More than 100 Coast Guard members are home Thursday night after nine days of drills and community outreach along the Arctic Slope. Operation Arctic Crossroads wrapped up in Kotzebue. During the operation, crews tested their equipment and familiarized themselves with areas along the coast where they may be called for search-and-rescue missions. Also on the mission was an optomitrist and a veterinarian, to treat hundreds of people and animals in each of the eight villages. “The logistics for them to get glasses is also difficult -- they do have to travel to some of the bigger cities such as Nome or Kotzebue or Anchorage, so they were appreciative of our services as well,” said Coast Guard Cmdr.