With city emergency winter shelters largely full Anchorage Health Department calls for more beds Anchorage Daily News

Five people were thought to be on board based on “reports from individuals familiar with those aboard the vessel,” the Coast Guard said.

Villages from Nightmute to Toksook Bay,Napakiak, Kongiganak and beyond are also facing significant damage, with housing damaged or destroyed and utilities broken, state emergency officials and community representatives said.

Dozens of flights to, from and within Alaska were canceled Thursday due to clouds of volcanic ash drifting from an eruption on Russia’s far eastern Kamchatka Peninsula.