High winds batter city; 2,000 lose power

Trees came down, roofs peeled away and power outages were reported around the Hillside and in Stuckagain Heights.

The storm brought rain and warmer temperatures -- Merrill Field hit 54 degrees -- along with the big winds. The city looked like breakup: slushy, muddy and messy.

Forecasters warned that as temperatures dropped overnight, puddles in roadways from Sunday's big melt would freeze up. Roads were expected to turn icy and driving was expected to be treacherous by Monday morning.

The strongest winds were logged between 4:30 a.m. and 7 a.m. Sunday, the National Weather Service said. At 5 a.m., a peak gust of 118 mph was logged at Glen Alps, according to the weather service. Gusts of 99 mph were recorded at McHugh Creek on Turnagain Arm, as well as on upper Dearmoun Road. The service defines hurricane-force winds as sustained winds or frequent gusts of 74 mph or greater.

An estimated 2,000 Chugach Electric Association customers lost power through a series of outages scattered around the Hillside and Stuckagain, a spokesman said. The biggest outage kept more than 1,000 customers in the dark for close to five hours, said Chugach spokesman Phil Steyer. All told, there were dozens of small outages. As of 9 p.m., 400 to 500 customers were still without power and Chugach had ramped up with 10 crews including contractors working on it, according to Chugach.

People Mover canceled the first trips of the day on bus routes throughout the city and warned riders to expect delays, missed trips and rerouting because of icy roads. One rider said her bus was blowing side to side. AnchorRides only picked up people for essential medical trips.

Police got a report of a geodome that had been used as someone's greenhouse landing upside down in the middle of Toilsome Hill Drive, on one of the switchbacks headed toward Glen Alps, said Lt. Dave Parker.

Trees came down in areas hit hard by the chinook, fire officials said. Some hit power lines and caused power to arc and trees to smolder and flame, said Al Tamagni, Fire Department spokesman.

Some people reported property damage, including roofs partly blown away and broken windows.

Shannon Brodie said her family members and two Labs all tried to sleep downstairs Saturday night because their Hillside house near Goldenview Drive was shaking so much from the wind.

Around 4:30 a.m., they heard something loud, like a tree hitting. Two years ago, they lost a bunch of hemlocks that uprooted in a windstorm.

But this time, the wind ripped the plywood and cedar shingles off part of the roof. Two upstairs bedrooms were exposed to the rain, Brodie said.

"All of our pictures were sideways, as if we had been in an earthquake," she said. The family packed up and went to a relative's home for the night.

In Eagle River, the winds ripped the siding and trim off the side of Duncan Whitney's home, off Eagle River Loop Road. "A lot of abnormal noise" woke him up around 3:30 a.m. and the siding tore away around 6 a.m. as the winds peaked, he said. Neighbors were seeing bits of their homes fly off, too, he said.

Freezing rain late Saturday prevented Alaska State Troopers from launching Helo 1, their search-and-rescue helicopter based in Anchorage, to look for two snowmachiners who had reported getting stuck. Their family and friends rallied and found them near Bald Mountain Ridge in the Mat-Su, a trooper spokeswoman said. Everyone made it out early Sunday.

At various locations around town on Sunday, temperatures warmed to the 40s and even above 50 degrees. Some roads, especially side streets, were icy or filled with slush, although main roads were largely back to bare pavement because of the melting and wind.

The storm descended on Anchorage and other parts of the state weren't hit with the big winds, said forecaster Neil Murakami.

But Fairbanks did see a dramatic 80-degree shift in temperature, from lows in the minus 40s last month to highs in the 40s Sunday.

Reach Lisa Demer at ldemer@adn.com or 257-4390.