Haley Stevens: “I want to encourage Members to read this article, a story about the hardships endured by the people of King Cove, and I…”

“I want to encourage Members to read this article, a story about the hardships endured by the people of King Cove, and I ask that it be printed in the Record. Road Warriors: Community Environmentalists Battle Over Road Through Refuge (By Maureen Clark) King Cove, Alaska (AP).--On this blustery spit of sand, surrounded by treeless mountains that rise out of the Pacific Ocean and disappear into the clouds, a medical emergency can take on formidable complications. Mariene Newman still gets a knot in her stomach when she talks about the three-day wait to get to a hospital after her daughter, Arlene, then 5, broke her arm while doing cartwheels six years ago. Fierce winds were funneling through the mountain pass where the community's small air strip sits. Planes were grounded. Newman watched and waited for a break in the weather, treating her daughter with painkillers and ice packs. Arlene couldn't keep food down and grew weaker by the day. Finally, Mariene and her husband, A.J., a fisherman who grew up in this isolated community at the tip of the Alaska Peninsula, decided to risk the rough seas for the three-hour boat trip to Cold Bay and its all-weather airport. By the time they reached Cold Bay, the little girl lay limp in her father's arms as she was carried from the lurching vessel, up a 30-foot ladder to the dock and taken to a plane bound for Anchorage, 625 miles away.”