June 1999

We're always on the lookout for good pictures from the Delta area to share with you on the Delta News Web.  With the fire earlier in June, we received quite a few nice images. Thanks again to Kay & Brian Eaton, Sue Miller, Tom Lucas, Reb Ferguson, Clint & Colleen Knix, Kerensa Hardy and others for contributing.

If you have images that you would be willing to share with people in Delta, you can get it to us via e-mail, through the PO, or by hand.  We prefer computer images, but we can quickly scan photographic prints and give them right back to you! 

Please see our photo submission page for more information on how to send images our way. 

David Johnson -- June 30, 1999

Virus Hoaxes

There is quite a bit of well founded concern among internet-connected computer users about viruses and worms.  We get several per year into our system.  Fortunately, our virus checking software has nailed every one of them before damage was done. 

Unfortunately, some people unknowingly add to the paranoia about these malicious items.  On Thursday, we received an e-mail message from a friend in another state warning us of the Wobbler virus.

There is no known Wobbler virus according to McAfee, a leading anti-virus software producer.

There are a couple of helpful resources I have found as I weigh this kind of incoming material: McAfee's virus hoax page and the US Department of Energy's Computer Incident Advisory Capability page.

The best protection for us has been the purchase of good anti-virus software and regular updating via the web.

David Johnson - June 24, 1999

Linda Johnson blows a shofar on Donnelly Dome.  Photo by David Johnson

Delta News Web Event
Calendar Now Interactive

While it may look the same as it has since the first of June, the event calendar at the lop left of the Delta News Web is now interactive. 

What this means is that what you type is what you get.  The system automatically enters your event information (entered on the Delta News Web event submission form) onto the Delta Calendar page.  When the date rolls around, it becomes visible on this page. 

Delta resident Glen Johnson is the author of the software.

David Johnson - June 22, 1999

The demobilization of the Donnelly Flats fire continues today, as cool rainy weather helps the 400 firefighters still assigned. Demobilization returns firefighters to their home units to prepare for other fire assignments.

Yesterday more than one-third of an inch of rain fell over the fire area. This trend is expected to continue for the next few days. Today eight Alaskan crews will continue to locate and extinguish hot spots along the fire’s edge, dig up and cool dozer berms, and rehabilitate dozer lines to prevent erosion. Crews are working to achieve a 300-foot smoke-free strip around the edge of the entire fire.

The fire is about 90% contained, and full control is estimated for June 25. The fire will be considered "controlled" when there is no reasonable chance that it could rekindle and escape containment lines. Tomorrow the Alaska Interagency Incident Management Team will turn the management of the suppression effort back to the Bureau of Land Management.

Residents and travelers are reminded that the burned area is unsafe for exploration. Fire-weakened trees will continue to fall and burned areas can have burned out stump holes, dozer berms and duff layers that can hold heat for an extended period of time and cause burns.

With the scaling down of fire operations and as progress towards control of this fire continues, this will be the last situation update provided by the Alaska Interagency Incident Management Team. Information about the Donnelly Flats Fire and other Alaskan fires can be obtained from Information Officer Andy Williams at 907-356-5511, at the Alaska Interagency Coordination Center, located in Fairbanks.

The Alaska Interagency Incident Management Team thank the citizens of Fort Greely, Delta Junction and the surrounding communities for their cooperation, patience and support during this fire. If we are called upon to serve here again, we will look forward to working with you in this same spirit of teamwork.

Donnelly Flats Fire Information Office June 21, 1999

Suggestions, recommendations and comments may be e-mailed to me at carlenewsmith@knix.net

Thank you, Carlene W. Smith Chairman June 17, 1999

Jeff Durham -- June 11, 1999

Hunter Education class graduates

The spring, 1999 Delta Junction hunter education class completed its work on May 1 and graduated 22 students. Hunter education is a program of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and is taught by state-certified instructors. Alaska’s Hunter Education card is accepted in all other jurisdictions where these cards are required for hunting. The purpose of the program is to train hunters in firearms safety, wildlife conservation, and hunting ethics and responsibility.

This year’s class was held at Granite View Sports and Gifts. Ron and Wanda Stewart handled registrations for the class, set up a classroom space, procured refreshments and took care of important details required for the class. Howard Beito, Jim Harris, David Johnson, Dennis Midgely, Mike Rawalt, Ron Stewart, Bill Todd took turns instructing in the class.

Several adults stepped forward to begin the process of becoming state-certified Hunter Education instructors. Because Alaska military reservations expect to require hunter education on their lands beginning January first, the new Delta instructor team plans to offer a series of classes this fall and one again next April.

The following students successfully completed the class and will receive Alaska Hunter Education cards: Chad Bartlett, Howard Beito, Ben Blais, Matthew Core, Randy Core, Arthur Cummings, James Cummings, Brandon Custer, Travis DuBois, Jim Harris, Silas Hill, Don Jackson, Buffy Lenon, Mike McCowan, Dennis Midgely, Ann Rasmussen, Annie Rasmussen, M. Kent Scifres, Ron Stewart, Kenn Stine, Ben Wyckoff, and Daniel Zollman.

Contributed by David Johnson June 1, 1999

Donnelly Flats Fire
Updated 6 PM Wednesday

The wildfire that rolled over Ft. Greely on Sunday night and caused the evacuation of Delta Junction has been slowed by cooler temperatures and light precipitation but is not yet out. Firefighters say high winds are predicted for early Thursday morning so crews are at maximum readiness.

At Tuesday night's fire meeting, Incident Commander Joe Stam of the Alaska Fire Service said "the weather is better, but we are not letting up."      Stam spoke to another standing-room only crowd at the regularly scheduled 6 PM meeting at the Community Center.

The fire now stands at 14,500 acres and according to the daily fire update is 35% contained. There were some small flare-ups within the fire perimeter today which firefighters attacked aggressively with retardant and helicopter buckets.

There are now 465 people now on the fire.  Firefighters are concentrating on the north end of the fire and will be continuing through the night. Their highest priority is structure protection.  They expect to have all of the spot fires east of Jarvis Creek completely out by 10 PM Wednesday night.

At Tuesday's meeting, Stam said their investigation led them to believe the fire was human caused, but they were not yet ready to say just exactly what.

At the Monday meeting, some residents asked what they could do to better protect their homes.  Firefighters responded to that request with a "defensible space" clinic scheduled for 7 PM Wednesday at the Community Center.

Stam said Monday night that the wildfire ignited nine structure fires on Fort Greely, but firefighters were able to extinguish all but two.

Stam said major fire priorities were safety of firefighters and residents, and protection of structures at Fort Greely and in the Delta area. 

State Troopers ordered the evacuation of Delta Junction at midnight Sunday night on the recommendation of senior fire personnel.  Many Delta residents did leave the area. Others remained overnight at the Tanana River bridge and other locations further from the fire. 

Stam said Monday that the evacuation order necessitated by the fire's Sunday night near approach to Delta is no longer in effect.  "I'm not a big fan of evacuations," he said, speaking of potential future need for evacuation.  He pointed out that in many cases it is better to have residents and business owners with defensible fire fighting space remain in place so that fires could be detected and suppressed.

Information Officer Anne Jeffries said their telephones have been giving them problems.  People report calling and calling with no answer while firefighters are able to call out without difficulty.  Jeffries listed a new fire information number: 873-2572.

Written by David Johnson on June 16, 1999 - 7 AM 

Old Delta welcome sign.  Photo by Steve DuBois.

Photo by Audrey Brown

Photo by David Johnson.

Photo by David Johnson.

Photo by Clint Knix.

Photo by Brian Eaton.

Photo by Clint Knix.

Photo by Mike Rawalt.

US Army photo

Photo by Richard Mitchell

Bison photo by David Johnson

Donnelly Flats Fire Update
8 PM Monday 6/14

An extremely aggressive wildfire fanned by 50 mph plus southerly winds and aided by extreme forest dryness destroyed the Sportsman's Club and Richardson Highway guard house on Fort Greely Sunday night and may still pose some risks for Delta.

At a 6:00 PM Monday meeting at the Community Center, incoming Incident Commander Joe Stam said firefighters are hitting the head of the fire 24 hours a day.  "We're here to put this fire out, not play with it," he said.  About 200 people attended the standing-room only meeting.

Stam said the wildfire ignited nine structure fires on Fort Greely, but firefighters were able to extinguish all but two.

Stam said major fire priorities were safety of firefighters and residents, and protection of structures at Fort Greely and in the Delta area. 

As the fire surged around and through the built up area on Fort Greely, Jarvis Creek was the only remaining barrier between the ignition point and the built up portions of Delta.   State and local firefighters battled the blaze with delaying actions as the fire surged north.  The fire jumped Jarvis Creek in several locations.  Stam said all those spot fires were contained on Monday.

The column of smoke late in the day on Monday resulted from a planned heavy timber burn out.  The burn out was designed to eliminate a fire hazard.

State Troopers ordered the evacuation of Delta Junction at midnight Sunday night on the recommendation of senior fire personnel.  Many Delta residents did leave the area. Others remained overnight at the Tanana River bridge and other locations further from the fire. 

Stam said the evacuation order necessitated by the fire's Sunday night near approach to Delta is no longer in effect.  "I'm not a big fan of evacuations," he said, speaking of potential future need for evacuation.  He pointed out that in many cases it is better to have residents and business owners with defensible fire fighting space remain in place so that fires could be detected and suppressed.

Stam said that there are more than 20 structural fire fighting engines in Delta from Fairbanks, other small communities and the Anchorage area.

He said that if an evacuation was needed, he would recommend it to troopers and give residents as much time as possible to leave their homes and businesses.

Delta Trooper Hughes said if an evacuation were ordered, tentative plans call for shelter to be set up at Lost Lake and Birch Lake.

Danger to Delta from the fire remains.  While weather forecasters are not predicting high winds, they could still occur.   "The wind isn't blowing right now," Stam said humorously, "and from what I know about Delta, that means it is about to blow." 

Firefighters say fire weather is not as serious as on Sunday, but still extreme.  As evidenced by the massive buildup of equipment and more than 300 firefighters, they are taking no chances. 

Information Officer Anne Jeffries listed three telephone numbers where Delta people can obtain fire information: 873-2588, 873-2571 and a cell phone, 440-4385.  The fire apparently damaged telephone equipment on Fort Greely, and that has made those lines less than 100% reliable.  Stam said that Delta Area Forestry may not have the most up to date information because local firefighters are now concentrating on prevention of additional fires. 

Jeffries said information would be posted at the Visitor Information Center, at IGA, and other locations.  The overhead team has asked AFRN to stay on the air until midnight so information can be related in that way.

Written by David Johnson on June 14, 1999 - 8 AM updated at noon and again at 8 PM

A moose that obviously can't read.  Photo by Brian and Kay Eaton.

New Melissa-Like Worm

A computer "worm" newer and more dangerous than Melissa is spreading rapidly around the world.  It has a zipped executable file which spreads by taking e-mail addresses from your system.  It also damages hard drive contents.  For additional information about this worm, see MSNBC News coverage on this dated June 10, 1999.  It is insidious in that it purports to come from friends on e-mail lists.   Thanks to Fern Harkness for pointing this out.

David Johnson - June 10, 1999

Wunderground Weather Sticker Problem

The weather reporting sticker graphic at the top of the Delta News Web comes from a commercial weather site and is loaded by the user's browser along with the rest of the page.  Wunderground has changed the graphic for this.  The temperature information they are reporting appears to cover Eielson AFB or Fairbanks.  Delta News Web is communicating with Wunderground on this change.

David Johnson - June 15, 1999

Interest in Delta News Web Runs High

The Delta News Web first published on June first.  Since that day, the hit counter at the bottom of the page has recorded over 2400 hits or about 77 per day average. The Donnelly Flats fire images page has seen the second highest number of hits at 1045.

Most hits appear to be from Delta people, but there are a fair number from other areas.

Here are the statistics for the main page for the last two weeks:

06/15/99 183 *********************************************
06/16/99 170 ******************************************
06/17/99 192 ***********************************************
06/18/99 231 ********************************************************
06/19/99 142 ***********************************
06/20/99 174 *******************************************
06/21/99 253 *********************************************************
06/22/99 145 ************************************
06/23/99 161 ****************************************
06/24/99 159 ***************************************
06/25/99 177 ********************************************
06/26/99 147 ************************************
06/27/99 74 ******************
06/28/99 111 ***************************

David Johnson -- updated June 29, 1999