The crew at the Coast Guard station on Attu Island is digging out from a weekend storm packing hurricane-force winds that left 7-foot snow drifts and a thick layer of ice on just about everything. The storm shook the Loran Station's 1-foot thick concrete walls. The sturdy station's wind meter peaked out early Sunday with a 178 mph-hour blast and the windows are still covered in thick ice. The Loran Station's engineering petty officer from Kenai, 52-year-old Stephen Strecker, said that after seven months at the station, he's getting used to the horrendous storms that rip through Attu Island at the end of the 1,200-mile Aleutian Island chain. When Strecker placed his hand on the wall during the storm, he could feel it vibrate. The sound of the storm came through the building's ventilation system. The level of the water in the toilets went up and down with each wind gust. Strecker ventured up to the recreation deck to watch the storm out the one window that remained clear during the storm. He said "It looked like you were going through a snowstorm in a jet."

(Associated Press)