Jessie Holmes says his dogs deserve all the credit for his 'magical' first Iditarod win

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Jessie Holmes says his dogs deserve all the credit for his 'magical' first Iditarod win

2025-03-15 08:07 Last Updated At：10:11

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Bundled-up well wishers lined a street along the Bering Sea coastline in the early morning darkness Friday, cheering musher Jessie Holmes as he won Alaska's Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.

Holmes pumped his fist as he ran alongside his sled with a headlamp beaming from his forehead, as he and his 10-dog team finished the 1,128-mile (1,815-kilometer) race across the Alaska wilderness in the Gold Rush town of Nome. The distance for this year's running was the longest in the Iditarod's 53-year history.

He said his win felt “magical” and he gave credit — and hugs — to his dogs, whom he described as family.

Holmes lives in the Interior Alaska community of Nenana, about 300 miles (480 kilometers) north of Anchorage, where he is a carpenter and lives a subsistence lifestyle. He found reality TV fame as a yearslong cast member of “Life Below Zero,” a National Geographic program that documents the struggles of people living in remote parts of Alaska.

Originally from Alabama, Holmes has lived since 2004 in Alaska, where he found a passion for the wilderness and competing in sled dog races.

This year was Holmes’ eighth Iditarod, and he has now finished in the top 10 six times, including third last year and in 2022. In 2018, his first Iditarod, he won Rookie of the Year honors with his seventh-place finish.

His win this year comes on the heels of adversity. He was helping repair buildings in the remote community of Golovin after the region was walloped by the remnants of Typhoon Merbok in 2022 when part of a house fell on him. He suffered several broken ribs and a broken wrist and was forced to train that winter with one arm, the Anchorage Daily News reported.

Holmes said he bred the 10 dogs that took him to victory, adding that he had held each of them in his hands as puppies.

“I’m really proud of these dogs and I love them. And they did it. They deserve all the credit,” he said.

He lavished particular praise on his lead dogs, Hercules and Polar, who were adorned at the finish with floral wreaths.

“These are the best in the world, right here,” he said, smiling, his arms draped around them.

A lack of snow this year forced changes to the route and starting point of what is typically a 1,000-mile (1,609-kilometer) race.

There are checkpoints along the route for rest or refueling. Mushers feed their dogs and put out straw for them to lay down, and catch some sleep themselves if they can. Mushers' sleds must be able to carry and provide cover to injured or tired dogs, in addition to equipment and food. They must carry adequate emergency food for their dogs when leaving a checkpoint, as well as routine meals and snacks.

The temperature in Nome when Holmes finished was -6 degrees Fahrenheit (-21 Celsius). He crossed the finish line after 10 days, 14 hours, 55 minutes and 41 seconds of racing. He came in about three hours ahead of the second place finisher, Matt Hall. Paige Drobny finished third.

“I'll tell you one thing: I damn sure ain't tired,” Holmes said to a chorus of cheering fans. “It's hard to put into words, but it's a magical feeling, and it's not about this moment now. It's about all those moments along the trail.”

He described witnessing a beautiful sunset, the moon shimmering on the snow and the northern lights, and said he had time to ponder his mentors and race winners who had died, “looking down on me and telling me I could do it. I just wanted to join that club with them. I've wanted that for a long time.”

Holmes is taking home $57,200 for his victory, in addition to awards including $4,500 worth of gold nuggets and 25 pounds of fresh salmon for finishing first in earlier stages.

He described the race as “10 quality days. I got my money’s worth.”

Monster storm across the US sparks threat of tornadoes and fire, killing at least 16

2025-03-15 23:53 Last Updated At：03-16 00:00

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The threat of violent tornadoes in parts of the U.S. proved deadly as well as destructive as whipping winds moved east into the Mississippi Valley and Deep South on Saturday, with at least 16 people killed and scores of homes decimated.

The most fatalities as of Saturday morning were in Missouri, authorities said, which was lashed by twisters overnight that resulted in at least 10 deaths. The Missouri State Highway Patrol also reported that multiple people were injured.

The deaths included a man who was killed after a tornado ripped apart his home,

“It was unrecognizable as a home. Just a debris field," said Coroner Jim Akers of Butler County, describing the scene that confronted rescuers when they arrived. “The floor was upside down. We were walking on walls."

Rescuers managed to save a woman in the home, Akers said.

Officials in Arkansas said on Saturday morning that three people died in Independence County and 29 others were injured across eight counties as storms passed through the state overnight.

“We have teams out surveying the damage from last night’s tornadoes and have first responders on the ground to assist,” Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders said on X. “In the meantime, I just released $250,000 from our Disaster Recovery fund to provide resources for this operation for each of the impacted communities.”

On Friday, meanwhile, authorities said three people were killed in car crashes during a dust storm in Amarillo in the Texas Panhandle.

The deaths come as a massive storm system moving across the country unleashed winds that triggered deadly dust storms and fanned more than 100 wildfires.

Extreme weather conditions — including hurricane-force winds — are forecast to affect an area home to more than 100 million people. Winds gusting up to 80 mph (130 kph) were predicted from the Canadian border to Texas, threatening blizzard conditions in colder northern areas and wildfire risk in warmer, drier areas to the south.

Evacuations were ordered in some Oklahoma communities as more than 130 fires were reported across the state. The State Patrol said winds were so strong that they toppled several tractor-trailers.

“This is terrible out here,” said Charles Daniel, a truck driver hauling a 48-foot (14.6-meter) trailer along Interstate 40 in western Oklahoma. “There’s a lot of sand and dirt in the air. I’m not pushing it over 55 mph. I’m scared it will blow over if I do.”

Experts say it's not unusual to see such weather extremes in March.

“What’s unique about this one is its large size and intensity,” said Bill Bunting of the National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma. “And so what that is doing is producing really substantial impacts over a very large area.”

The Storm Prediction Center said fast-moving storms could spawn twisters and hail as large as baseballs, but the greatest threat would come from straight-line winds near or exceeding hurricane force, with gusts of 100 mph (160 kph) possible.

The center said parts of Mississippi including Jackson and Hattiesburg and areas of Alabama including Birmingham and Tuscaloosa would be at a high risk. Severe storms and tornadoes were also possible across eastern Louisiana, western Georgia, central Tennessee and the western Florida Panhandle.

Wildfires in the Southern Plains threatened to spread rapidly amid warm, dry weather and strong winds, and evacuations were ordered Friday for some communities in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri and New Mexico.

A blaze in Roberts County, Texas, northeast of Amarillo, quickly blew up from less than a square mile (about 2 square kilometers) to an estimated 32.8 square miles (85 square kilometers), the Texas A&M University Forest Service said on X. Crews stopped its advance by Friday evening.

About 60 miles (90 kilometers) to the south, another fire grew to about 3.9 square miles (10 square kilometers) before its advance was halted in the afternoon.

High winds also knocked out power to more than 260,000 homes and businesses in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois and Indiana, according the website poweroutage.us.

The National Weather Service issued blizzard warnings for parts of far western Minnesota and far eastern South Dakota starting early Saturday. Snow accumulations of 3 to 6 inches (7.6 to 15.2 centimeters) were expected, with up to a foot (30 centimeters) possible.

Winds gusting to 60 mph (97 kph) were expected to cause whiteout conditions.

Shipkowski reported from Toms River, New Jersey. Walker reported from New York. Russ Bynum contributed from Savannah, Georgia and Rebecca Reynolds contributed from Louisville, Kentucky.