In internet-less Sitka, it's both "mayhem" and a "golden moment"

In internet-less Sitka, it’s both “mayhem” and a “golden moment”

Some surgeries are on hold. Businesses have gone cash-only. Starlink units are a precious commodity. But more people are talking, sharing stories and “doing what they used to do without the internet.”

In the Southeast Alaska town of Sitka, some hospital surgeries are on hold.

Many shops and restaurants are operating on a cash-only basis. Contact with the outside world comes mostly through satellites.

For the past week, a break in the sole cable that provides Sitka’s internet and phone service has wreaked havoc on residents and businesses — and, at the same time, effectively launched a massive social and economic experiment: What happens for 8,000 people who…