The night before my team and I were scheduled to fly from Juneau to Haines on Seaplanes with the U.S. Secretary of Transportation, Pete Buttigieg, I did something I’ve never done before when traveling in Southeast.

I wished for rain and wind.

I secretly hoped our flights would be grounded so the secretary would get a real taste of transportation in our state, where we often have to pivot to Plans B and C to get where we’re going.

As luck and weather would have it, my prayers were quickly answered when we got the updated forecast at 4:30 a.m. that next morning. And instead of flying,...