Anchorage Daily News finally covers the Emmonak crisis. But does not tell the full story.

With a phone and a computer keyboard, Nicholas Tucker has turned a spotlight on his neighbors in the western Alaska village of Emmonak by telling stories of people trapped in a food and fuel crisis.

I am going to give the lions share of the credit for bringing attention to this crisis to Mr. Tucker.

However I am going to take a moment to give credit to the many other generous, caring individuals who helped give this story a happy ending.

And the first person I have to give a hat tip to is Camille Conte, or as we know her CC. It was CC who first spoke out passionately on this issue in answer to Mr. Tucker's letter on her radio show Wednesday. And she is the one who kept referring to her outrage over the story while arranging my future guest appearance her show. (Which will be happening today at 3:00 AK time. You can hear it live here.)

Anyhow I wrote a post about the story early yesterday morning and then called Nick Tucker in Emmonak. His voice was so sad, and he seemed so desperate, that before I could stop myself I promised him that help was on the way.

Then I started to e-mail my wonderful Alaska blogger friends, made follow up phone calls, and continued to check back with Nick Tucker throughout the day. (It is noteworthy to divulge that each of my phone calls found Mr. Tucker in an ever improving mood as the donations and attention started to pour in. By my last conversation with him he was over the moon with joy.)

I also need to say that both my e-mails and phone calls to the Alaska bloggers were met with nothing but support and agreement. Some were already on the story, while others put aside the posts they had been preparing to focus on this story instead.

By the time the evening rolled around we had posts about Emmonak at the following blogs. Mudflats, Progressive Alaska, Alaska Dispatch, Celtic Diva, Alaska Real, and Kodiak Konfidential.

And that is just the Alaska bloggers!

There were also posts on Daily Kos, Huffington Post, Americablog, and Firedoglake.

And all day long we called the office of governor Palin, and were told repeatedly that they knew nothing about this village or of any crisis.

In the meantime one of our bloggers, Dennis Zaki (who also freelances as a reporter for CNN), decided to go to Emmonak and get the crisis on film so that the whole world could see what is happening right under our Governor's eyes.

In no time at all we had donate buttons on our sites, and the many wonderful visitors to our blogs had raised enough money to send Dennis out to the village with enough left over to make an additional contribution to help the people of Emmonak meet their food and energy needs.

So that is the REAL story of how local activists, anonymous bloggers, and generous internet users helped to save a small village in a remote section of Alaska.

You may be very impressed with the people I have identified in this post, and they deserve your admiration, but do you know who I am impressed with?

I am impressed with the hundreds of people from all over the country who took the time to send a donation to save a village full of people they do not know, and will never meet. The people who suddenly realized how blessed their lives were and felt compelled to improve the lives of these strangers. The people who were so inspired to send money that they kept asking me if their were a FASTER way to get the money to these desperate individuals. Those are the people I am impressed with.

In other words I am impressed by you. For all of you who helped out yesterday, or who may scroll down to the Emmonak post to help out today, I want to say thank you.

Yesterday Mr. Nick Tucker said to me, "It is like angels have come down to earth to help us."

You were those angels.

Once again thank you from the bottom of my heart.