Beth Zimmerman, Assist. Administrator for FEMA Disaster Assistance Services, sees first hand the challenges and solutions for delivery of recovery services in remote Alaskan villages.

Arriving in Tanana

John Madden:  Beth is one of the leadership with FEMA from Washington, DC

Darlene Wright:  Very nice to meet you

Beth Zimmerman:  Well it's very nice to be here, I'm thankful for this opportunity to come out and to see all the good work that's happened and the support that we've been able to provide from the federal government through what's required and what's needed.  The whole effort, the whole combined effort of everybody and what we consider the emergency management family, working with the communities and the state.  

Julie Roberts Hyslop:  It's been a tremendous effort by everybody to try to put our community back together, and we really appreciate it all of the volunteers that came here, all of the FEMA people that are working here in the community and just the community people here.  

Subsistence Living Along The Yukon River

Fishwheels provide food for people and sled dogs through the winter

Damaged fish drying racks and smoke houses were replaced

Tanana, pop. Approx. 260
Accessible only by river and air

Construction materials and tools were shipped from Fairbanks via Tanana and Yukon Rivers

Eagle Alaska,
On the Yukon River
Four miles from Canada

House-sized ice chunks moved homes and crushed property in the May 2009 flooding

Doug Mayne:  We're here today to bring out some senior level folks from the state and from FEMA and from the National VOAD to take a look and see what we've done and how far we've come and the unique aspects of providing disaster support in the state of Alaska in the rural and remote communities.

Beth Zimmerman:  It's been amazing to be on the ground here and to really see what had to come together from all the different agencies from the federal government, I should say starting at the local government, the local community here that's been impacted as well as with the state and then the federal government the voluntary agencies and just everybody who came together, really put forth the effort to make these people's lives, to bring them back to where they want to be and as we're out here looking at this I wanna be able to take back as we work in Washington, DC and we have the programs and the policies and how they impact and how they can relate to disasters such as this to be able to put it all in perspective.

Racing ahead of Alaska's winter clock, the unique geographical challenges to delivering recovery services were resolved through a close partnership among volunteers, state and FEMA

For more information go to:  www.fema.gov