See detailed quake info, read user reports, submit your own if you felt it!

See detailed quake info, read user reports, submit your own if you felt it!

SB2016: Chugach Alaska Land Exchange Oil Spill Recovery Act of 2025

Today’s news: PFD checks roll out soon. Chugach Electric launches new rate. Crowded classrooms take their toll on Anchorage schools. Mat-Su schools push ahead with program that allows staff to carry c...

It’d shift energy charges, but that doesn’t guarantee lower bills.

It’d shift energy charges, but that doesn’t guarantee lower bills.

The Alaska State Fire Marshal’s Office has classified the dock at Whittier’s Chugach Glacier Gateway Cruise Terminal as a total loss after a fire tore through the structure on Sept. 14. No injuries were reported; Norwegian Jade moved away safely, while the empty Klondike Express tour boat sustained heavy damage. The damaged dock is part of an approximately $80 million cruise development that began receiving ships in September 2024 and completed its first full operating season in 2025. The fire forced Norwegian Cruise Line to move an embarkation the same day and organizers to relocate an upcoming U.S. Navy commissioning ceremony. ## Fire response continued into Tuesday The fire was reported shortly before 11 a.m. Monday and was not fully extinguished until about 12:30 a.m. Tuesday, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. The 137-foot Klondike Express, a Phillips Cruises & Tours catamaran, was released from the pier so crews could extinguish the vessel fire away from the dock. The Coast Guard established a 500-yard safety zone around the scene and sent personnel from Sector Western Alaska and U.S. Arctic and Station Valdez. A pollution-response team was also deployed to assess any potential fuel or oil discharge. The fire’s origin and cause remain undetermined. The state fire marshal is reviewing the terminal plans and investigating because the incident caused major infrastructure damage. Problems with some hydrants complicated suppression efforts. Responders from Whittier, Anchorage, Girdwood and several Kenai Peninsula communities used water tenders, engines and hoses connected to a functioning hydrant elsewhere in Whittier. The Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel, the community’s only road connection, temporarily closed to provide access for emergency crews and reopened Monday afternoon. “Our operations will continue for the remainder of the season, and we will contact guests directly if any scheduled departures are affected,” said Casey Neumann, managing partner of Phillips Cruises & Tours. ## The dock’s future is unclear Norwegian Cruise Line shifted Norwegian Jade’s embarkation to Whittier Alaska Cruise Ship Terminal 1, about two-thirds of a mile across the water from Chugach Glacier Gateway. The ship was due to begin a seven-night southbound Alaska cruise to Vancouver that day, and the line had not confirmed any change to the itinerary. Huna Totem Corp. developed Chugach Glacier Gateway in partnership with Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings to serve Norwegian Cruise Line, Oceania Cruises and Regent Seven Seas Cruises. The 20-acre site includes a 508-foot floating dock serving two berths and a 30,000-square-foot passenger processing facility. Huna Totem had not set a repair schedule. “We are still assessing the full extent of the damage to the dock and do not yet have enough information to characterize the overall condition of the facility,” said Chris Da Silva, Huna Totem’s chief marketing and communications officer. ## Navy commissioning moves across the bay The Oct. 3 commissioning of the USS Ted Stevens has been moved from the damaged dock to the Holland America Princess terminal across the bay. Cherie Curry, president of the USS Ted Stevens Commissioning Committee, said organizers arranged the change within hours. “We just jumped to plan B when I heard about the fire,” Curry said. The post-ceremony reception will remain at the Chugach Glacier Gateway passenger terminal, which Curry said was not damaged. Organizers are preparing for more than 3,000 attendees. Private vehicles will not be permitted through the Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel on commissioning day, and ticket holders must travel to Whittier by designated motor coach or Alaska Railroad service. Royal Princess is scheduled to be the next cruise ship in Whittier on Sept. 24; no change to that call had been announced.

Fire tore through the dock at Whittier's new Chugach Glacier Gateway cruise terminal, and Anchorage fire officials say the $80 million facility had no functioning hydrants when crews arrived.

A major fire erupted at the recently constructed Chugach Glacier Gateway Cruise Terminal in Whittier, Alaska, on Monday, September 14.

Alaska holds between 175,000 and 200,000 moose, which is more than every other state combined several times over, so the answer to this question is decided before the lower 48 gets a turn. The Chugach and the Tongass sit inside that population and have no meaningful competition. What is more interesting is what happens further south, where the national forests that still have good moose numbers tend to be the ones with a lot of young, recently disturbed forest, and the ones losing moose fastest tend to have neither. Moose are not a wilderness animal in the way people assume. They are a cut-over-country animal, and the forests that reflect that are the ones with animals in them. Here are the forests that hold them, and the counterintuitive reason the healthiest herds are often found in the busiest woods rather than the most protected ones. Chugach National Forest, Alaska The Chugach covers much of the Kenai Peninsula and the country around Prince William Sound, and it sits in the middle of the densest moose habitat in the United States. Alaska's statewide population of 175,000 to 200,000 animals means that a single state holds well over half of all the moose...