about the wife of a Jehovah’s Witness leader. A prize-winner at last fall’s Venice Film Festival, “April” could be accused of leaning too much into an austere, art-film obliqueness. But Kulumbegashvili’s absolute control over the camera and the intensity of her calling make her film a grimly spellbinding and unforgettable experience.
Robert Atene, a project leader with the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority, relaxes in a truck during a lunch break while installing power line poles at a home, Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024, on the Navajo Nation in Halchita, Utah. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)Robert Atene, a project leader with the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority, relaxes in a truck during a lunch break while installing power line poles at a home, Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024, on the Navajo Nation in Halchita, Utah. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)
But installing power on the reservation roughly the size of West Virginia is time-consuming and expensive due to its rugged geography and the vast distances between homes. Drilling for power poles there can take several hours because of underground rock deposits while some homes near Monument Valley must have power lines installed underground to meet strict regulations around development in the area.About 32% of Navajo homes still have no electricity. Connecting the remaining 10,400 homes on the reservation would cost $416 million, said Deenise Becenti, government and public affairs manager at the utility.Liam Gillis, 7, holds one of his chickens, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024, at his home on the Navajo Nation in Halchita, Utah. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)
Liam Gillis, 7, holds one of his chickens, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024, at his home on the Navajo Nation in Halchita, Utah. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)Liam Gillis, 7, corrals his chickens, Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024, at his home on the Navajo Nation in Halchita, Utah. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)
Liam Gillis, 7, corrals his chickens, Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024, at his home on the Navajo Nation in Halchita, Utah. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)
This year, Light Up Navajo connected 170 more families to the grid. Since the program started in 2019, 882 Navajo families have had their homes electrified. If the program stays funded, Becenti said it could take another 26 years to connect every home on the reservation.The Atlantic hurricane season starts June 1, and the county has some new weapons this season, including a brand-new emergency operations center and a new seawater desalination water treatment plant. The county also relies on surveillance flights from hurricane-hunting aircraft from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for information about how to prepare.
But, the potential for a catastrophic storm likein 2017 is always at the back of residents’ minds. The Category 4 storm made landfall in the Florida Keys with winds up to 132 mph (209.2 kph), destroying around 1,180 homes and seriously damaging another 3,000.
Weiner recently talked to the Associated Press about the upcoming hurricane season. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.Weiner: Our entire island chain is surrounded by water. We have more water than we do land mass. Being uniquely situated between the two large bodies of water makes us very vulnerable. We see storms early, sometimes in their formation — storms that come across the Atlantic and then storms that develop in the south, in the Caribbean Sea. We tend to be in their path, and so we get a lot of storm practice here in Monroe County.