GOOD NEWS - SAFE ARRIVAL AFTER POTENTIALLY DANGEROUS TRIP

In April, I posted that a young woman was driving up from the Northwest with three young children and that there was concern among the nurses in the clinic for their safety.  Her mother-in-law, who lives in Barrow, had temporary custody of her two older children who had flown up in order to begin school before the rest of the family arrived.  She’d brought them in for their immunizations and one of them received a text during the visit that their mother was just then setting out on her long drive.  I haven’t seen any of the family since then and have often wondered if they had made it safely to Barrow and how the trip had gone.

This Thursday morning, I read through the charts on my desk for the appointments I’d be having during the day.  Two of them were for adolescents with the same last name who would be coming in for their second HPV immunizations.  Their names weren’t Inupiaq and they didn’t register in my mind until reading the notes from their last visit that mentioned that they had just arrived in Barrow and were in temporary custody of their grandmother until their mother arrived.  I was elated that I would be seeing them again and would be able to meet or ask about their mother and how her trip up with her three younger children went.

 

She was a delightful young woman and said that she’d driven from Oregon, up the Alcan Highway to Fairbanks and that it was the most fun thing she’d ever done.  Her route took her up through Washington, British Columbia, the Yukon Territory and then into Alaska.  She said that she was advised in Fairbanks that it wasn’t safe to drive the Dalton Highway to Prudhoe Bay and that it wouldn’t be possible to bring her car to Nuiqsut and then on to Barrow on the ice road this time of year.  Fortunately she took the advice seriously, stored her car in Fairbanks and flew with her three young children to Barrow.  She said that she’d drive from Fairbanks to Prudhoe when road conditions were more stable and that someone she’s met in Barrow will pull her car by sled over the ice road in the winter.  It sounds as though she has a good plan.

She said that she’s enjoying living in Barrow, that her children are adjusting well and that she’s working for in payroll for the school district.  As we talked about her work, she mentioned that she’d been trained as an Incident Commander for an emergency response team in the community where she lived in Oregon.  All employees of the North Slope Borough are required to go through FEMA training, so I knew what a high level of responsibility the position has and how intense the training must be.  She shared that she’d like to volunteer on an emergency response team here.  I had learned the week before at a staff meeting that the Disaster Coordinator position with the North Slope Borough is open, so I gave her the information in case she’s interested in applying.  I think Barrow has gained not only a nice person and family, but a valuable asset in her coming.

Many of you have asked if I knew if she and her children arrived safely, so feel sure you’re happy to read this.  When I shared the above with Michelle, the most experienced public health nurse among us and who has lived in Barrow the longest, she breathed a sigh of relief…she had been even more concerned than I had been, knowing more acutely the dangers the family would face if they drove beyond Fairbanks.  Bertrand is out on family until late August, but I can just picture his smile when he learns that all is well for this family too.