Alaska Man Monday: Scheming Ravens and Indifferent Whales

We were in Seattle in the week just past; we’re there once a year for a couple of days for my wife to see a medical specialist there. But boy, every time we go there, I like that city less. Like all cities, it’s overly crowded, noisy, and it stinks. And since that commie mayor has taken over, I’m positive it’s gotten worse. I know the locals we talked to said there are more homeless camps than last year, and that’s for sure not a good thing. See more in this week’s video offering, which is on the short side due to our having to travel on short notice.

Home now, though, and glad of it.

Now, there’s this: Down in Girdwood, a power outage was caused by a raven. That’s about as Alaska as it gets.

Chugach Electric posted on social media that by 8 a.m. Friday morning, a power outage was impacting the entire town of Girdwood, nearly 1,900 people.
According to Chugach Electric, power was restored at around 7:45 p.m.
The damage was caused by a raven. According to Chugach Electric, the wiring between the transformer and the Girdwood substation, and the circuit switcher that supplies the substation, was damaged. The crew will continue repairs until power is restored.
Julie Hasquet, communications manager at Chugach Electric, told Alaska’s News Source the bird flew directly into the transformer, setting off a chain reaction of damage.
“What happened this morning is a raven flew into the transformer in Girdwood. It contacted the transformer,” Hasquet said. “It caused some damage to the control wiring to the transformer, basically a cascading series of damage. It went into the Girdwood substation control room and the circuit switcher, which actually supplies the substation.”

The raven, sadly, probably didn’t make it.

“What’s fairly common is a squirrel or a bird to get into an electric wire, land on the wire or something, trip the breaker, and cause an outage,” she said. “You usually just remove the small animal and reclose the breaker. What is unusual about this event is the extensive damage that was caused by the original contact onto multiple sites of the system, leading all the way up into the Girdwood substation.
As for the raven, Hasquet said the outcome was likely fatal. “Most of the small animals will die immediately upon contacting live electric wires,” she said.

It’s unclear whether or not the raven was found.

Alaska Man score: No moose nuggets, out of sadness for a moment’s carelessness by a bird that normally shows uncanny intelligence.

Now, here’s another odd one that’s even more Alaska; getting your boat sunk by a humpback whale even beats having your power killed by a raven. But that’s just what happened to the Lewis family, in Glacier Bay.

“My husband and I were asleep in our sailboat anchored in Glacier Bay, and our 23-year-old kid who was with us on the trip was awake reading and heard a giant thud, and then the boat just sank,” Tania Lewis told Alaska’s News Source.
Lewis is no stranger to Alaska. In fact, she works as a wildlife biologist for Glacier Bay National Park, but not marine wildlife, she was quick to point out.
“I spend a lot of time on boats in Glacier Bay getting from point A to point B,” Lewis said. “We’re very familiar with the area.”
Lewis said that on July 29 her family was sailing around the national park. Earlier that evening, her adult son told her that they should move because they spotted two whales nearby, but she said there wasn’t any need to worry since their boat was anchored and was still.
“There have been a couple of close calls in Glacier Bay that I just learned about with whales hitting boats in the night, but they never sank them or did major damage,” Lewis said.

That’s a heck of a thing, and they’ll have a great story to tell their grandkids. Here’s the thing about whales: They aren’t necessarily aggressive creatures, unlike moose and bears. But also unlike moose and bears, they are so flipping big that they can wreck you without even really noticing.

Alaska Man score: No moose nuggets for this unfortunate event, but we’ll award five for the family being OK.

Now, a (very) quick look at Seattle.

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