Widespread power outages hit Southcentral Alaska overnight Sunday amid high winds, with utilities reporting trees falling on power lines.
Matanuska Electric Association spokeswoman Julie Estey said the utility saw numerous small outages overnight Sunday, including one that left her own home without power. Almost all power had been restored by noon Monday, according to an MEA online outage map.
"We had about 10 outages impacting about 7,000 members," Estey said. "There's been a lot of downed power lines our crews have had to fix."
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Estey said easing winds Monday morning have helped workers catch up with the damage. Several MEA crews were deployed to make repairs, focused on the Caswell Lakes and Butte areas.
In Anchorage, the Chugach Electric Association said on its Facebook page that just 30 customers were still without power early Monday after a series of outages during the evening concentrated on the Hillside and Jewel Lake areas.
"We are experiencing outages on the Hillside, Goldenview, Bear Valley, Campbell Airstrip and others," Chugach officials wrote in an initial post on the outages at about 3 p.m. Sunday. "Numerous trees have been reported in the lines."
Chugach spokeswoman Sarah Wiggers said in an email that the utility saw a peak of 3,300 people without power Sunday evening, with the largest single outage affecting 720 customers.
"Most outages were attributed to wind damaged trees in contact with overhead lines. At this time, crews continue to make repairs and cleanup after the storm," Wiggers wrote.
Municipal Light & Power spokeswoman Julie Harris said no reports of outages among its customers came in overnight Sunday.
The Homer Electric Association's Facebook page reported overnight outages in Sterling near Three Johns Road, as well as the Skyline area of Soldotna near Kalifornsky Beach Road. HEA spokeswoman Melissa Carlin said power to the roughly 90 people affected by those outages, as well as one near Pitzman Avenue in Homer, was restored by 6 a.m. Monday.
National Weather Service meteorologist Joe Wegman said Anchorage winds peaked Sunday evening.
"Our highest wind gust was at Glen Alps at 81 miles per hour — that occurred at 9:55 p.m.," Wegman said.
In Mat-Su, the Palmer airport reported a wind gust of 45 mph at 7 p.m. Sunday. Wind observations weren't yet in from the Kenai Peninsula Monday morning, Wegman said.
The Weather Service's Anchorage office isn't expecting further significant winds for Southcentral on Monday.
"The winds are all on their way down at this point," Wegman said.