Pelican has gone without plane or ferry service since Nov. 28, due mostly to record-setting weather

‘Nobody here is starving,’ mayor says. But mail, medicine and Christmas gifts can’t get in, while people with medical issues can’t get out.

A boardwalk in Pelican on Sunday, Dec. 7, 2025. (Screenshot from video by Anthony Corder)

By Mark Sabbatini

Juneau Independent

Ajax Eggleston says he’s canceled a couple of medical trips scheduled in Juneau because of chest pains, as well as a family Christmas celebration with his parents in Sitka. Instead, the holiday feast at his home in Pelican was deer from a hunt earlier this year and his Christmas wish is hoping the town’s month-long isolation from the rest of the world ends soon.

"I wanted to send Raven Radio a picture of our Christmas tree with not a single present under it and a picture of the store produce counter with rotting vegetables," Eggleston said Monday in a phone interview.

Pelican, a tiny town on Chichagof Island with an estimated 70 to 80 residents this winter, hasn’t had a plane or ferry arrive since Nov. 28. Mayor Barry Bryant said residents are generally self-sufficient because periods of isolation are common, but the current disruption caused by weeks of record cold and snow is highly unusual — and perhaps unprecedented — in length.

"Nobody here is starving in the sense of struggling," he said Monday. "We do have a grocery store and we do have a few things, and people are pretty self-reliant, and this is pretty common to a certain extent in Southeast Alaska."

"I don't think anybody's a whiner or a complainer — they're pretty tough. It's just unfortunate on all accounts, especially since a lot of the mail and Christmas gifts have not arrived."

Messages on a public "Pelican Post" Facebook page have been largely seasonal, with only a few related to being cut off ("Does anyone in town have Pepcid? We’ll replace it the next time planes fly"). The most recent post, by the City of Pelican early Monday afternoon, was announcing winners of a Christmas lights contest.

Fresh foods are in short supply at Pelican General, due to the town not having a plane or ferry arrive in 31 days, but other shelves remain relatively well stocked on Monday, Dec. 29, 2025. (Photos by Barry Bryant)

Pelican hasn’t been entirely cut off during those 31 days — a woman needing emergency medical care was medevaced out on a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter and the town’s Village Public Safety Officer was able to return on a helicopter shortly before Christmas to be with her family.

"Our VPSO had actually chartered a helicopter to come out," Bryant said. "So a couple got in with her on that helicopter, along with some milk and eggs."

Bryant, who owns the store Pelican General, said most of his shelves still have stock on them.

"The eggs and milk, that was gone pretty fast," he said. "But as far as the general needs of the community, — baking supplies, things like that, cleaning supplies — we're all right."

Eggleston said the community is going through some other difficulties such as broken pipes, furnaces and generators people can’t get parts or replacements for.

Flights have been unable to reach Pelican due to an ongoing cycle of alternating cold snaps and snowstorms, both of which have set a multitude of records across Southeast Alaska during December. Jodi Garza, president of Alaska Seaplanes, said Monday there are minimum temperature requirements for communities accessed by seaplane, which in Southeast includes Pelican, Angoon, Tenakee Springs and Elfin Cove.

Intense snowfall has kept planes from flying during periods when the sub-zero cold spells have lifted, Garza said.

"This is very unusual for us not to make it out there for this long," she said, adding "I know that there is a record for not making it out to Pelican. I don't know if we've broken it this year, but we are pretty close."

Food, Christmas gifts and other cargo are piling up at Alaska Seaplanes’ facility in Juneau, and the company’s Facebook page states it isn’t accepting chill storage items to those four floatplane communities until flights can resume.

"We try to get a hold of customers and see if they want to come pick it back up," Garza said, referring to the backlog of cargo. "But a lot of it is groceries that some other person has dropped off, so there's not really a place to take it back to."

When Alaska Seaplanes will be able to resume flights to Pelican and other communities, and how long it will take to catch up with the cargo backlog are day-to-day unknowns, she said.

"Every day we wake up thinking we're going to be able to go until we can't," Garza said. "It’s scheduled every single day, you can still book it, people can still fly it, and we don't make the call until the day of."

One option when flights can’t get in is transferring cargo to Alaska Marine Highway System ferries. However, that hasn’t been possible during Pelican’s disruption since the only scheduled arrival of the LeConte on Dec. 13 was cancelled and the next scheduled ship arrival isn‘t until Jan. 6. Tenakee Springs and Angoon are both on the Hubbard’s sailing schedule, while Elfin Cove has no scheduled ferry service.

Significant reductions in the frequency and reliability of ferry service in Southeast Alaska — especially during winter — has been a major concern for people in smaller communities in recent years. The ferry system ranked at the bottom of the state’s infrastructure report card released earlier this year due to “aging ships that need constant repair,” a chronic workforce shortage and ridership being half of its 2012 peak.

"I think that the extraordinary thing about this time is that the ferry kind of just forgot about us," Eggleston said.

"Travel here is pretty treacherous in the winter, but I think the real issue is does the government want these small towns to exist?" he added. "And if they do then they have to supply ferry service."

Shannon McCarthy, a spokesperson for the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, stated in an email Monday that the Le Conte’s trip to Pelican was cancelled because of unsafe conditions.

"The route to Pelican crosses the Gulf of Alaska, and our vessel encountered some of the worst weather that we operate in — high winds, high seas and freezing spray," she wrote. "Pelican is an important community for the Marine Highway, and we know how tough it's been, so we are looking at procuring a landing craft for after the New Year to assist. Landing crafts are subject to the same weather we are, however, so we're keeping our fingers crossed that Mother Nature gives us a window soon."

Bryant said when the current cycle of disruption and unusual weather passes he’s hoping to discuss options with other officials to develop contingency plans to avoid a recurrence in similar circumstances. He said one option is stocking up more in advance in case the last ferry of the year can’t arrive, while another might be exploring charter options if the community finds itself going two weeks without any kind of outside access.

Eggleston, 51, who’s lived in Pelican most of his life, said he tried to set up medical appointments in Juneau twice his month because he’s been having chest pains and "that's pretty pressing for me." But he’s cancelled them because it doesn’t yet appear to be an emergency situation.

"The Coast Guard's pretty strict on it has to be life-threatening because the way the weather was it could be life-threatening for them," he said.

The weather forecast for the coming week is mostly for snow and rain, but in much lesser amounts than the record accumulation that occurred in Juneau on Saturday and Sunday. The forecast in Pelican for New Year’s Eve is for "a chance of snow and rain," and Eggleston said he knows how he wants to celebrate the new year if at all possible.

"Try to get on a plane," he said.

• Contact Mark Sabbatini at editor@juneauindependent.com or (907) 957-2306.