A medevac plane flew above Igiugig last August. It was late, around 11 p.m., but a child from the remote Southwest Alaska village needed to

Red Cross honors Igiugig woman for helping light runway during late-night medevac

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2021-05-20 21:30:06

A medevac plane flew above Igiugig last August. It was late, around 11 p.m., but a child from the remote Southwest Alaska village needed to be transported to Anchorage for intensive care.

“Somebody needed extended care, and the only way to get it is to get them on a medevac and out to Anchorage,” she said during last week’s Red Cross Real Heroes awards ceremony.

But the light from her lone four-wheeler wasn’t going to be enough. As they communicated with the LifeMed pilot, Nelson’s neighbor started to get people to the airport.

“She was busy calling everybody in the village, waking them up and asking them, ‘Hey, run to the runway. We need to light up the runway so the plane can land,’”Nelson said. “Everybody came from the ages of like eight to 70 years old.”

Residents lined the runway with their vehicles to light the pilot’s way. The plane landed, and the child who needed care was transported to the hospital.