My Alaska has been very much in the news with stories of ice and snow squeezed into a minute of words, leaving more questions than answers. The link below will bring you to a slide show of the effort to get needed fuel to Nome.
http://www.adn.com/2012/01/09/2254298/coast-guards-cutter-healy-escorts.html#id=2254292&view=thumbs_view
In early November a huge storm prevented an oil tanker from reaching Nome with their winter supply of fuel. Then the ice moved in and blocked any late delivery. There are no roads to Nome, you can't fly in millions of gallons of fuel, you certainly can't get it there by dog sled. The final solution was a Russian fuel tanker ( apparently we don't have one that could do this job) with America's only Coast Guard icebreaker leading the way and a University of Fairbanks drone flying over head showing the icebreaker where the ice is thinnest and more easy to navigate.
The day before yesterday the tanker made twelve miles in the icebreakers opened sea lane and then yesterday they lost five miles because of unfavorable winds and tides. Meanwhile the Nome Harbor is getting more and more iced in with a deep ice ridge blocking the channel. When the tanker finally gets there it will have to stretch a line over a mile long to reach shore. The tanker has been on its way for over a month with multiple set backs while Nome waits with no plan B and the very real possibility of running out of fuel.
My Alaska is also making news with snow probably because the lower fortyeight has none to talk about and we have more than our fair share. Link to pictures of Cordova.
http://www.adn.com/2012/01/10/v-gallery/2256990/cordova-short-of-shovels-as-snow.html#id=2254380&view=thumbs_view
The city of Cordova on the other end of Alaska got buried in 15 or more feet of it. People had to climb out second story windows if they had them. An ongoing blizzard is building up even more snow and roofs have been
caving in or are about to. Whole apartment complexes have been evacuated
although its not clear where they put everybody. The local hardware store ran out of shovels and since there is no road to Cordova either, more shovels need to be shipped in. There is an airport but flying in supplies is cost-prohibitive.
To the rescue came the National Guard clearing roofs, saving schools and municipal buildings, tunneling to doorways and giving weary locals a chance to catch their breath.
My Alaska does things in a big way. It takes the US Coastguard, a foreign country, the state department, the National guard, The University research department (and this just in, Canada providing shovels) all working together to deal with our weather proving the old maxim "Where there is a will there is a way".