A pair of small fires kept the Unalaska Department of Public Safety busy last Friday. One was an accidental burn at Alyeska, but the other was intentionally set at the underground World War II-era hospital.

KUCB's Alexandra Gutierrez has more.

Tonight, city council will convene to make decisions on budget and zoning items.

There will be public hearings on two ordinances at the top of the meeting. One ordinance would allow chiropractor Jim Morris to operate a clinic at toward the bottom of Haystack Hill in an area that’s presently a residential zone. The other would amend the budget so that the Department of Public Safety could accept drug forfeiture money and that the Unalaska Public Library could receive a Rasmuson grant for the expansion of their collection. Additionally, that ordinance would also increase the budget for the Ballyhoo Road Project and amend the budget for the new Carl E. Moses Small Boat Harbor. Both of these ordinances will be voted on in the unfinished business portion of the meeting.

The September 2nd tsunami evacuation was a test of Unalaska’s emergency preparedness. Residents in low-lying areas were called to leave their homes and move to higher ground to escape a potential wave. The rule of thumb is to get at least 50 feet above sea level. But now, some University of Alaska Fairbanks researchers are working on a model that should give more specific information on how the state’s communities could be affected by tsunamis.

Each year, thousands of ships travel through the Aleutians on the Great Circle route, and that number only continues to increase. It’s one of the faster ways to get cargo from Asia to America, but it can also be a perilous voyage. The Aleutian Island Risk Assessment is an effort keep maritime disasters from happening in the region, and its advisory panel has just released a set of recommendations that they say could improve vessel safety in the immediate future.

The World War II Valor in the Pacific Monument was only established in 2008, and Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge officials are still determining how to manage it. A recent trip to Atka provided a major opportunity for local input.

KUCB’s Alexandra Gutierrez has more.

A research vessel operated by the National Science Foundation has left Unalaska to do seismic work in the Chukchi Sea.

The research vessel Marcus G. Langseth will be collecting data on the Chukchi shelf and borderland to get a better sense of the region’s geological history. Prior to leaving on this cruise, the Langseth had been studying the earthquake subduction zone in the Aleutian region for the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory as part of the Alaska/Aleutian Megathrust Project.

The Port of Dutch Harbor is once again America’s busiest fishing port.

Today, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released its seafood rankings for 2010, and Unalaska tops the list for landings in terms of volume. Approximately 515 million pounds of seafood crossed the docks here last year – that’s almost 100 million more pounds than Reedville, Virginia, the next busiest port. The community has now been first on that list for 22 years in a row.

Mount Cleveland is on watch once more.

The Alaska Volcano Observatory bumped the aviation color code from yellow to orange yesterday after the group observed that the lava dome in Cleveland’s crater was growing again. The dome has expanded 50 percent this week, and it is now nearly 400 feet in diameter.

Cleveland lies 115 miles from Unalaska, and a major eruption could affect air travel in the region.

Last week’s tsunami evacuation didn’t just involve getting everyone out of their house – it involved getting most residents awake and out of bed. Despite this challenge, the city succeeded by most measures in getting people to high ground on Friday morning.

“I think this is a community that’s used to doing things anytime of the day or night. The seafood processing plants reacted immediately. Public safety and volunteers came in,” says City Manager Hladick. “There’s maybe some delay with people being foggy and waking up, but I think the community takes it seriously.”