The Alaskan winter has been brutal, with temperatures of minus 40C (-40F), and Nome, two degrees south of the Arctic Circle and with a population of 3,500, is running out of fuel. The trucks and snowmobiles that have replaced sled dogs are at risk of being rendered useless, while the heating systems of snow-clad homes could fail.
National Guards have been dispatched to the fishing town of Cordova on Alaska's southern coast to dig residents out of the snow. But Nome's rescue party, the tanker Renda escorted by an American icebreaker, is still 140 miles away. Renda left Vladivostok on December 17. Since then she has been involved in a fuel mix-up in South Korea, been delayed by storms, and has had to alter her route to avoid the world's largest population of the spectacled eider, a protected sea duck.
The Healy, the US Coast Guard's only functioning icebreaker, is leading the way. But as soon as it breaks the ice in its path, it is reforming. Progress is agonisingly slow, and there are doubts over whether the convoy will succeed.
Nome, on the western Alaska coastline, did not receive its final pre-winter fuel delivery because of a massive storm. A normal barge cannot make the trip until ice melts in June or July.
In 1925, the dogs brought desperately needed serum to a town cut off by more than 674 miles of frigid tundra and sea ice, saving it from an incipient diphtheria epidemic. A statue of Balto, the lead husky, stands in Central Park, New York, and to this day parents read stories to their children about the "Great Race of Mercy".
But as the New York Times noted: "This latest tale appears less likely to produce a warm children's book than an embarrassing memo, and maybe a few lawsuits."
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