Online voting in Alaska's Fat Bear Week contest starts after an attack killed 1 contestant

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Let the chunk-off begin.

Voting starts Wednesday in the annual Fat Bear Week contest at Alaska’s Katmai National Park and Preserve, with viewers picking their favorite among a dozen brown bears fattened up to survive the winter.

The contest, which is in its 10th year, celebrates the resiliency of the 2,200 brown bears that live in the preserve on the Alaska Peninsula, which extends from the state’s southwest corner toward the Aleutian Islands. The animals gorge on the abundant sockeye salmon that return to the Brooks River, sometimes chomping the fish in midair as they try to hurdle a small waterfall and make their way upstream to spawn.

Organizers introduced this year's contestants on Tuesday — a day late — because one anticipated participant, a female known as Bear 402, was killed by a male bear during a fight on Monday. Cameras set up in the park to livestream footage of the bears all summer captured the killing, as they also captured a male bear killing a cub that slipped over the waterfall in late July.

“National parks like Katmai protect not only the wonders of nature, but also the harsh realities,” park spokesperson Matt Johnson said in a statement. “Each bear seen on the webcams is competing with others to survive.”

The nonprofit explore.org, which streams the uncensored bear cameras and helps organize Fat Bear Week, on Tuesday hosted a live conversation about the death. Katmai National Park ranger Sarah Bruce said it wasn’t known why the bears started fighting.

“We love to celebrate the success of bears with full stomachs and ample body fat, but the ferocity of bears is real,” said Mike Fitz, explore.org’s resident naturalist. “The risks that they face are real. Their lives can be hard, and their deaths can be painful.”

The bracket this year features 12 bears, with eight facing off against each other in the first round and four receiving byes to the second round. They've all been packing on the pounds all summer.

Adult male brown bears typically weigh 600 to 900 pounds (about 270 to 410 kilograms) in mid-summer. By the time they are ready to hibernate after feasting on migrating and spawning salmon — each eats as many as 30 fish per day — large males can weigh well over 1,000 pounds (454 kilograms). Females are about one-third smaller.

Bear 909 Jr., who last week won the Fat Bear Junior competition for the second time, will face Bear 519, a young female in the first round. The winner will face the defending champion, Grazer, described as one of the most formidable bears on the river.

Another first-round match pits Bear 903, an 8-year-old male who was given the nickname Gully after he developed a taste for seagulls, against Bear 909, the mother of Bear 909 Jr. The winner faces a two-time champion, a bear so large he was given the number of the equally massive airplane, Bear 747.

In the other half of the bracket, the first-round match has Bear 856, an older male and one of the most recognizable bears on the river because of his large body, challenging a newcomer, Bear 504, a mother bear raising her second known litter. The winner will face perhaps the largest bear on the river, 32 Chunk, a 20-year-old male who once devoured 42 salmon in 10 hours. He's estimated to weigh more than 1,200 pounds.

The last first-round match has Bear 151, a once-playful young bear nicknamed Walker now showing more dominance, versus Bear 901, a solo female who has returned to the river after her first litter did not survive. The winner will face Bear 164, called Bucky Dent because of an indentation in his forehead.

Voting in this year's tournament-style bracket is open through Oct. 8.

More than 1.3 million votes were cast last year.

This image provided by the National Park Service shows bear 504 at Katmai National Park in Alaska on Sept. 16, 2024. (F. Jimenez/National Park Service via AP)

This image provided by the National Park Service shows bear 909 at Katmai National Park in Alaska on Sept. 19, 2024. (T. Carmack/National Park Service via AP)

This image provided by the National Park Service shows bear 128 Grazer at Katmai National Park in Alaska on Sept. 12, 2024. (M. Carenza/National Park Service via AP)

This image provided by the National Park Service shows bear 856 at Katmai National Park in Alaska on July 3, 2024. (T. Carmack/National Park Service via AP)

This image provided by the National Park Service shows bear 151 Walker at Katmai National Park in Alaska on July 5, 2024. (T. Carmack/National Park Service via AP)

This image provided by the National Park Service shows bear 909 at Katmai National Park in Alaska on July 6, 2024. (K. Moore/National Park Service via AP)

This image provided by the National Park Service shows 151 Walker at Katmai National Park in Alaska on Sept. 12, 2024. (F. Jimenez/National Park Service via AP)

This image provided by the National Park Service shows bear 747 at Katmai National Park in Alaska on Sept. 26, 2024. (E. Johnston/National Park Service via AP)

This image provided by the National Park Service shows bear 519 at Katmai National Park in Alaska on June 29, 2024. (T. Carmack/National Park Service via AP)

This image provided by the National Park Service shows bear 519 at Katmai National Park in Alaska on Sept. 12, 2024. (F. Jimenez/National Park Service via AP)

This image provided by the National Park Service shows bear 164 at Katmai National Park in Alaska on June 24, 2024. (T. Carmack/National Park Service via AP)

This image provided by the National Park Service shows bear bear 128 Grazer at Katmai National Park in Alaska on July 12, 2024. (T. Carmack/National Park Service via AP)

This image provided by the National Park Service shows bear 903 at Katmai National Park in Alaska on Sept. 8, 2024. (C. Cravatta/National Park Service via AP)

This image provided by the National Park Service shows bear 903 at Katmai National Park in Alaska on July 3, 2024. (T. Carmack/National Park Service via AP)

This image provided by the National Park Service shows bear 32 Chunk at Katmai National Park in Alaska on June 29, 2024. (T. Carmack/National Park Service via AP)

This image provided by the National Park Service shows bear 901 at Katmai National Park in Alaska on July 5, 2024. (T. Carmack/National Park Service via AP)

This image provided by the National Park Service shows bear 747 at Katmai National Park in Alaska on June 22, 2024. (T. Carmack/National Park Service via AP)

This image provided by the National Park Service shows bear 504 at Katmai National Park in Alaska on June 26, 2024. (T. Carmack/National Park Service via AP)

This image provided by the National Park Service shows bear 164 at Katmai National Park in Alaska on Aug. 31, 2024. (T. Carmack/National Park Service via AP)

This image provided by the National Park Service shows bear 901 at Katmai National Park in Alaska on Sept. 13, 2024. (T. Carmack/National Park Service via AP)

This image provided by the National Park Service shows bear 856 at Katmai National Park in Alaska on Sept. 19, 2024. (T. Carmack/National Park Service via AP)

This image provided by the National Park Service shows bear 32 Chunk at Katmai National Park in Alaska on Sept. 19, 2024. (E. Johnston/National Park Service via AP)

As the rain from Hurricane Helene came down harder and harder, workers inside a plastics factory in rural Tennessee kept working. It wasn’t until water flooded into the parking lot and the power went out that the plant shut down and sent workers home.

Several never made it.

The raging floodwaters swept 11 people away, and only five were rescued. Two of them are confirmed dead and part of the death toll across the affected states that passed 150 Tuesday.

Four others are still unaccounted for since they were washed away Friday in the small town of Erwin, Tennessee, where dozens of people were rescued off the roof of a hospital.

Some workers managed to drive away from the plant, while others got caught on a clogged road where water rose enough to sweep vehicles away. Videos show the brown floodwaters from the adjacent Nolichucky River covering the nearby highway and lapping at the doors of Impact Plastics.

Jacob Ingram, a mold changer at the plastics factory, filmed himself and four others waiting for rescue as bobbing vehicles floated by. He later posted the videos on Facebook with the caption, “Just wanna say im lucky to be alive.” Videos of the helicopter rescue were posted on social media later on Saturday.

In one video, Ingram can be seen looking down at the camera, a green Tennessee National Guard helicopter hovering above him, hoisting one of the other survivors. In another, a soldier can be seen rigging the next evacuee in a harness.

Impact Plastics said in a statement Monday it “continued to monitor weather conditions" on Friday and that managers dismissed employees “when water began to cover the parking lot and the adjacent service road, and the plant lost power."

In interviews with local news outlets, two of the workers who made it out of the facility disputed those claims. One told News 5 WCYB that employees were made to wait until it was “too late.” Another, Ingram, made a similar statement to the Knoxville News Sentinel.

“They should’ve evacuated when we got the flash flood warnings, and when they saw the parking lot,” Ingram said. “We asked them if we should evacuate, and they told us not yet, it wasn’t bad enough.”

Worker Robert Jarvis told News 5 WCYB that the company should have let them leave earlier.

Jarvis said he tried to drive away in his car, but the water on the main road got too high, and only off-road vehicles were finding ways out of the flood zone.

“The water was coming up,” he said. “A guy in a 4x4 came, picked a bunch of us up and saved our lives, or we’d have been dead, too.”

The 11 workers found temporary respite on the back of a truck driven by a passerby, but it soon tipped over after debris hit it, Ingram said.

Ingram said he survived by grabbing onto plastic pipes that were on the truck. He said he and four others floated for about half a mile (about 800 meters) before they found safety on a sturdy pile of debris.

Impact Plastic said Tuesday it didn’t have any updates.

“We are devastated by the tragic loss of great employees,” company founder Gerald O’Connor said in the statement Monday. “Those who are missing or deceased, and their families are in our thoughts and prayers.”

Hurricane Helene’s death toll increased Tuesday as searches in multiple states continued. Survivors were looking for shelter and struggling to find running water, electricity and food. Others in the region are bracing for barriers to voting.

The two confirmed dead at the Tennessee plastics factory are Mexican citizens, said Lisa Sherman-Nikolaus, executive director at Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition. She said many of the victims’ families have started online fundraisers to cover funeral costs and other expenses.

Bertha Mendoza was with her sister when the flooding started, but they got separated, according to a eulogy on her GoFundMe page authored by her daughter-in-law, who declined an interview request.

“She was loved dearly by her family, community, her church family, and co-workers,” the eulogy read.

AP journalists Rhonda Shafner and Beatrice Dupuy contributed from New York.

In this image made from a video provided by NewsNation, people can be seen on the roof of the Unicoi County Hospital in Erwin, Tenn., on Friday, Sept. 27, 2024. (NewsNation via AP)

This image taken from video from the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency shows a helicopter on the roof of Unicoi County Hospital in Erwin, Tenn., where patients and staff had to be rescued from after the Nolichucky River flooded and surrounded the building from Hurricane Helene, Friday, Sept. 27, 2024. (Tennessee Emergency Management Agency via AP)

An aerial view of flood-damaged Unicoi County Hospital in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024, in Erwin, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

An aerial view of flood-damaged Unicoi County Hospital in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024, in Erwin, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

An aerial view of flood damage in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024, in Erwin, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

An aerial view of flood damage in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024, in Erwin, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)