![]() ![]() In 1993, a polar bear burst through a window of an Air Force radar station on the North Slope, seriously mauling a 55-year-old mechanic. Biologists later said the animal showed signs of starvation. In 1990, a polar bear killed a man in the North Slope village of Point Lay. ‘My guard would be down’įatal polar bear attacks are rare in Alaska. “We can’t do what we’d like to do, which is turn back the clock,” Nedza said. in Nome was also on its way, another piece of the school district’s mental health plan for supporting students and communities after a tragedy. A behavioral health team from the Norton Sound Health Corp. On Wednesday, the district office dispatched its school counselor to Wales. The school was closed Wednesday and will be open in a limited capacity the rest of the week, with no academics, just meals and space available for counseling. In the wake of Myomick and her son’s death, the community is grappling with “crippling grief,” Nedza said. ”She was a very sweet lady, she was very responsible.” Michael right now, and Wales,” Washington said. Michael city administrator Virginia Washington told the Associated Press. Myomick split time between the two communities, St. ![]() Michael, about 200 miles southeast of Wales, is on Norton Sound. Wales, a predominantly Inupiaq village of fewer than 150 people, is on the far western tip of the Seward Peninsula bordering the Bering Strait, just over 100 miles northwest of Nome. Public safety officials say they won’t be able to provide specifics about the bear involved in Tuesday’s attack until troopers and Fish and Game biologists can examine the animal. The remains of Myomick and her son were sent to the State Medical Examiner Office for autopsy. Though the National Weather Service says data from its observational system in Wales has not been working, the nearby station at Tin City on Tuesday saw gusts up to 50 miles per hour, with blowing snow and minimal visibility that would have affected the same area, making for near-whiteout conditions.Ī state trooper and an Alaska Department of Fish and Game representative reached Wales on Wednesday to investigate the attack, after poor weather and “the lack of runway lights in Wales” had kept them from flying to the village earlier, according to state public safety officials. It’s likely weather in Wales on Tuesday was bad, with poor visibility. There was no additional information available about the circumstances surrounding the attack. Eventually, they got the word out to the community that “they needed someone to take care of the bear.”Īuthorities had not publicly identified the person who killed the bear as of Wednesday afternoon. School officials locked down the building and drew the shades, she said. “Not something you’re ever prepared for.” “The bear tried to enter with them,” Nedza said, but principal Dawn Hendrickson “slammed the door” to keep it out. ![]() Nedza, said Wednesday from her office in Unalakleet, where she was staying in touch with staff in Wales. The principal and other employees rushed people into the school after the animal was spotted, the district’s chief school administrator, Susan R. Troopers said reports of a polar bear attack came in around 2:30 p.m., with initial accounts describing the bear chasing several people before a Wales resident shot and killed the animal “as it attacked the pair.” Myomick was walking with her son between the school and the Wales clinic when the bear attacked them, troopers said.īering Strait School District officials say the mauling occurred next to the front entrance of Wales’ Kingikmiut School building, which the bear threatened to breach. Michael resident Summer Myomick and 1-year-old Clyde Ongtowasruk. (Loren Holmes / ADN archive)Ī mother and her young son died Tuesday in an extremely rare attack by a polar bear in the Northwest Alaska village of Wales, the state’s first fatal polar bear mauling in more than 30 years.Īlaska State Troopers on Wednesday identified the victims as 24-year-old St. A polar bear walks along the beach in Kaktovik in September 2012. ![]()
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