Gambell Man Threatens Village, Causes Power Outage

0:00A 28-year-old man from Gambel, Alaska, named Grady Rexford, is facing serious charges after threatening folks with a knife in knocking out. Powered to the entire village for over five hours last Wednesday. It started around 4 p.m. when he stormed into the local native store, waving a knife and scaring customers while tossing stuff around. Witnesses gave varying accounts, but troopers couldn't respond right away due to brutal weather, and village peace officers were out of reach. Even things escalated when Rexford hit the power plan, shutting down electricity, heat, water, and even airport and comms towers. This hit hard during a massive blizzard with wind chills down to minus 20 degrees, leaving everyone in the dark and freezing. Utility workers found him messing with equipment, throwing barrels, flashing his knife, and claiming he was on KGB business. He'd flip the main cutoff switch and tamper with cool and valves, sparking a big fire risk. His breath test came back at 0.125 when they nabbed him.

1:00Power flickered back on around 10 p.m. after some tense fixes in the storm. Rexford's first court date is Friday morning in Nome, as troopers wrap up this wild chain of events. That's your update from Anchorage News Today, powered by AI.