A breach in an aging wooden dam in late July left Kake without water for drinking or the town’s seafood processing operation. A log slammed into the face of the dam, fractured a structural beam and punched a hole about the size of grapefruit, draining the town reservoir, Mayor Lonnie Anderson said. “There … was no way in heck that people could even get near to do anything … .” Officials feared the dam, built in the 1950s, would break all at once and wash away a $10 million hatchery downstream. Now they worry public health and the town’s economy will suffer from a lack of water. “We’ve got plenty of water, but none of it’s usable,” said Anderson, who declared a disaster and appealed to state and federal officials for help. Business all but shut down in the middle of the peak summer season, idling two-thirds of the town’s workers. “We can’t process fish without fresh water,” said Sam Jackson of Kake Tribal Corp. “It’s the height of seafood processing operations … .” A project intended to supplement the water supply by connecting Kake with a lake more than 6 miles away isn’t slated for completion until October, Anderson said.
