[URBAN NOTE] "Welcome To Whittier, Alaska, A Community Under One Roof"

[rfmcdonald]

NPR earlier this week took a look at the Alaskan port of Whittier, noteworthy for housing most of the town's population and business in a single building.

Whittier, Alaska, is a sleepy town on the west side of Prince William Sound, tucked between picturesque mountains. But if you're picturing a small huddle of houses, think again.

Instead, on the edge of town, there stands a 14-story building called Begich Towers — a former Army barracks, resembling an aging hotel, where most of the town's 200 residents live.

Writer Erin Sheehy and photographer Reed Young visited Whittier for a report, "Town Hall," in The California Sunday Magazine.

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Finding your way to the remote town isn't easy. You can get to Whittier by sea or take a long, one-lane tunnel through the mountains, which at any given time only runs one way.

"It's still a fairly inaccessible town," Young says. "Plus, at night, they close the tunnel completely."

Then there's the weather: The 60 mph winter winds are brutal. That's why residents inside Begich Towers have everything they need under one roof.

"There's a laundromat, a little market," Sheehy says.

"And there's a convenience store," Reed says. "There is a health clinic." It's not a hospital, but they can handle minor ailments.

There's even a church in the basement.