"Tougher in Alaska" (Anchorage, Bethel: dangerous, oil, ferry)

[expdxer]

I have been watching the show and found the episode last night about Southeast quite amazing, frankly. While Geo Beach's talking style can be annoying, you have to respect the guy (and the workers he is following) for the dangerous work they do. He went into a mine outside Juneau that is building hydroelectric power and climbed an AT&T tower in bad weather, to say the least. He also spent time on the ferry, Columbia, but didn't say anything about the politics related to ferry service that I have been reading here and elsewhere.

So my question now is about telephone service in Southeast. After watching the show you would think that SE's telephone service always goes down but I have had telephone job interviews with people in Juneau with great service, and I am in New York. So, I am just curious, how's the (land line) phone service there and do the smaller towns in SE have more problems than Juneau?

[gallon]

Love that show. In my opinion, it by far gives the best sense and feel of what it is really like to survive in Alaska. Much better than the survivor shows, tour shows, big game hunter shows, ice road trucker staged shows, all of them. It is about the real people doing the real work under the real severe conditions. Loved the latest installment out of Bethel. The rescue team was running a drill where they had to go out and find the lost individual. The poor guy they sent out to 'get lost' was suffering from shock and hypothermia by the time they found him. By that time it wasn't a drill, it was real.
And then they had to send out an emergency fuel oil tanker convoy up the river to the towns which were running near empty. They had to plow as they went, and had to test the river ice along the route. Very dangerous stuff there. I had trouble accepting Geo at the beginning but he is growing on me for his authenticity, nothing fake going on there. Great show. Gives great imagery to what I am reading all the time on this board. What it is like for all of you there outside of Anchorage.

[Metlakatla]

I don't know anything about the show but:

do the smaller towns in SE have more problems than Juneau?

Yes.

[DannyL]

Originally Posted by expdxer

do the smaller towns in SE have more problems than Juneau?

Absolutely, and it's expensive.