In the meantime:
The weather continued to
escalate and while some days the warmth of the sun would beat through the plexi
windshields of the airplanes, the air outside was indescribably cold with winds
that cut through clothing like a knife blade. Being in that climate is just plain painful. Your legs, feet and hands hurt and it
becomes difficult maneuvering limbs or gripping anything. Holding on to grip bars on the
snowmobiles becomes more and more difficult. I often noticed large burns on the children’s
cheeks. When I asked one pixie
looking student what had happened to his face, he matter of factly said
“frostbite”. I tried so hard to
mask my horror. As time passed, I
saw more and more children with burn like marks on their cheeks.
Climbing in or out of the
planes required caution: one slip
and falling on the ice would be very painful. Sometimes the winds moved the planes while people were in them,
but the propeller wasn’t moving, the plane being pushed by gales that indicated
flight was hazardous, but it was the only way to get to where you were
going.
The streets in Bethel built
up thick layers of ice. They were
rutted and difficult to navigate.
Large graters periodically came through and chiseled off the topmost
layers to level the thick ice and also to provide some texture to the ice for
traction. Without that remedy, the
streets looked like they were covered with a thick layer of glass that was more
than slippery, it was downright treacherous.
Sewage
pipes froze, even though they were heated, and that prevented school from
convening. Water pipes burst in a
couple of the schools, leaving a soggy mess in hallways, tiles coming up off
the floors and everything was saturated with water that then froze on the
floors. There was no way to shower
or wash clothing, let alone find sufficient water for cooking or cleaning up
after. Day after day was a new
challenge.
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