Anchorage Assembly resolution would push Congress to fund a Turnagain Arm rescue boat launch

The Girdwood Fire Department entered the water about 25 minutes after arriving at a fatal Turnagain Arm incident. No boat launch exists along that stretch of the Seward Highway, according to a resolution now before the Anchorage Assembly. Assembly member McCormick submitted the resolution, which was read on Aug. 4. It urges Alaska's congressional delegation, Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan and Rep. Nick Begich III, to secure federal money for site assessments, engineering feasibility studies and cost estimates for an emergency boat access point on the Arm. It also asks the delegation to pursue federal funding for the design and construction of that access point, including Community Project Funding, U.S. Forest Service recreation and access programs, U.S. Coast Guard boating safety programs and federal transportation funds. The Assembly has not yet adopted the resolution.

The resolution builds its case on the death of Joshua Novakovich, 25, of Anchorage, who was swept into the Arm near Mile 92 while paddleboarding the bore tide on June 19, 2024. His body was recovered June 21, 2024, according to Alaska Department of Public Safety records and prior Alaska News coverage. The resolution as filed misdates the incident to June 19, 2026. Novakovich remained alive in the water for about three hours, in contact with family and in view of responders, before he died as rescuers tried to reach him, the resolution states.

Girdwood Fire Department arrived with roughly 10 to 12 personnel and multiple apparatus. Crews first requested air rescue, but no aerial asset was available in time. The Alaska State Troopers helicopter carries no hoist and cannot fly at night. The Alaska Air National Guard could not respond from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson because of fatigued resources. The Coast Guard helicopter had to launch from Air Station Kodiak, more than 240 miles away.

With a boat the only near-term option, crews disconnected the motor from their rescue vessel, hand-carried the motor and hull roughly 30 to 40 feet down steep rocks, and reassembled it at the water's edge. Girdwood Fire and Rescue said of the shoreline, "There is nothing here to facilitate any kind of a boat launch." In local news coverage of the response, the department's account was summarized this way: "firefighters had to carry this rescue boat over the massive rocks, adding precious minutes to the rescue effort." Crews have said the delay stemmed from infrastructure and jurisdictional constraints rather than responder inaction, noting that the state transportation department closed access to the water and did not build a dock. Paddleboarders and other shoreline recreation users on the Arm, along with the families of those who go missing there, face that same gap. A delayed response in cold tidal water can decide whether someone survives. A similar rescue in May 2023 also failed to free a trapped visitor before the rising tide reached him, the resolution states.