Canadian neighbours promise to help as closed border cuts off Alaskan town

'We take care of each other and that's the way it will always be,' says Canadian mayor

Hyder, Alaska, USA. Alamy

There’s only one road into the Alaskan town of Hyder and the 80 people who live there rely on it to get across the border into Canada for everything from groceries and petrol to healthcare.

So when the US and Canada announced the border was shutting in a bid to stem the spread of the coronavirus, the remote town on Alaska’s panhandle looked set to be cut off from its lifeline to the outside world – the British Columbia town of Stewart, population 400.

When she heard the news, Stewart Mayor Gina Mckay says she rallied the townspeople to help their Alaskan neighbours through he pandemic.

"Technically, we're two countries and we're two communities but we don't see each other as that," she told The National by phone. "We take care of each other and that's the way it will always be."

Hyderites can currently cross into Stewart for essential travel, although have been asked to limit visits to once a week.

Industrial workers are currently allowed from Canada into Hyder.

But the town’s groceries shops, hardware stores and local businesses joined the mayor and promised to deliver goods as close as they can to the shut border if needed.

“There was even speculation about troops at the border but that seems to have fallen by the wayside now,” said Mayor Mckay. “Whatever happens, we will not leave them in the lurch.”

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Last week, sources said the White House considered deploying 1,000 soldiers about near to the 8,891km US-Canada border to stop the spread of the coronavirus, a proposal strongly opposed by the Canadians.

The Department of Homeland Security said on Tuesday there are no longer plans to station troops at the border.

The US does not have a border post at Hyder, which is literally the end of the road.

“We’re two tiny little communities really in the middle of nowhere,” said Mayor Mckay. “It really doesn’t matter what our nationality is, we’re all humans right now.”