The Tribal administrator in Tununak has to text photos of financial documents to a consultant in Fairbanks to get work done. He says because of the internet outage the Tribe may have missed grant deadlines.
When a fire ripped through Tununak’s laundromat in February, it left people without an easy place to wash clothes. The fire also damaged the community’s internet infrastructure, causing outages for half of the village.
Whitman said that she has missed important meetings and trainings for her new job. And it’s impacted the children she is working to protect. According to GCI, The internet outage has impacted five businesses and 12 homes in Tununak. But Tununak’s tribal administrator, Xavier Post, said that it has actually affected around 45 homes. That’s more than half of the community.
Each task takes him double or triple the usual amount of time. He gets around not having internet at work by texting photos of the Tribe’s financial documents to a consultant in Fairbanks, or by lugging his work computers home and using his personal internet.“I definitely can understand why folks are frustrated. I know that connectivity is, you know, a need. It’s not a nice to have, it’s a must have,” she said.