Anchorage Daily News

As the scream of wind across the mountain slopes above Anchorage and Eagle River began to diminish Friday afternoon, the air filled with the roar of chain saws and the pungent smell of fresh cut spruce.

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Everywhere Alaskans seemed to be doing one of the things Alaskans do best -- getting the human world patched back together after another onslaught from Mother Nature.

On the Anchorage Hillside high above Potter Marsh, Larry Kingry managed a laugh as a crew of contractors struggled to wrap the roofless east end of his house in plastic amid still blustery winds. Kingry and his wife, Caroline, had been forced to flee their Marijane Street home in the pre-dawn darkness after the roof blew off, some windows blew out, and the rain started pouring in.

"I could hear the roof coming apart,'' Kingry said.

When he looked outside at about 2 a.m., he saw the beams of searchlights from a Chugach Electric truck probing the night looking for power lines tangled in downed trees. The lights lit what Kingry at first took to be the mother of all snowstorms.

Then he realized he wasn't looking at snow. He was looking at the expensive new insulation from his roof.

"I just did an energy audit,'' he said, "added a new heating system and all the insulation. I was looking at sitting back and enjoying a snug winter.''

Kingry said contractors were telling him it would take weeks to make the house livable again. Costs were expected to go into the tens of thousands of dollars.

All Kingry could do was shake his head and laugh some more.

"Not only that,'' he said, "I just took a bigger deductible on my insurance this year.''

The Kingrys were among those hardest hit by the storm, but there were thousands dealing with the aftermath.

Hillside residents woke Friday to find themselves without power to make coffee or use water pumps to take a shower. Many went outside to discover they'd have to chain-saw their way to work. Trees were down across hundreds of driveways across the Hillside, and in Eagle River and Peters Creek to the north. In some places roads were blocked by fallen trees as well. People who could stayed home to start clearing the damage as Chugach Electric workers battled to bring power back on line.

Fifteen thousand of the approximately 20,000 people without power at the height of the storm were back on line by Friday evening, said Chugach spokeswoman Patti Bogan. But linemen were still struggling to clear lines and repair transformers that left 5,000 people powerless. She was hopeful everyone would have their electricity restored by today.

Hillside resident MacGill Adams said he got to watch quite the light show when the wind blew trees into power lines in front of his house Friday. Sparks lit up the early morning sky and then one of the trees caught fire, he said. The Anchorage Fire Department came but couldn't do anything about the burning tree because the power line was still energized.

As everyone waited for Chugach to kill the power, Adams said, the wind just kept building. The longtime Hillside resident was up early because he'd just finishing bolting together a greenhouse for his wife. It was a present to thank her for spending most of the summer hanging around their home supervising a construction project while he was guiding in the Brooks Range.

At 2 a.m., he said, "I was inside the greenhouse, and it was 56 mph, and I thought, 'This is good.' ''

Not for long. By morning, all that was left of the $5,000 structure was twisted metal and busted glass.

"The greenhouse went under at 88 (mph),'' Adams said.

"It was rated to 80-some mph,'' said wife Dee Dee Van Vliet, "That's what the paperwork says.''

Adams said the anemometer at his house hit 98 mph, the highest he'd ever seen -- "98, that's what your temperature is supposed to be.''

"This storm had 100 mph winds associated with it,'' said John Stepetin of the National Weather Service in Anchorage. The agency warned Anchorage residents Thursday to be ready for a powerful low pressure system to come roaring ashore.

"Once (the storm) got to the North Pacific near the Gulf of Alaska, that's where it really started picking up more energy,'' Stepetin said.

By the time it slammed into the Chugach Mountains behind the city, it was packing typhoon-strength winds.

Anchorage firefighter Trey Miller said the winds spilled out of the mountains with enough force they made it tough to stand even at lower elevations in the city. He jumped out of a fire truck to help fight a house fire near Lake Otis Boulevard during the night and nearly got knocked over.

He went home to his own house on the Hillside at 9 a.m. Friday to find trouble.

"My roof's gone,'' he said. "I lost three trees.''

When he arrived, neighbor Mike Keeter was already busy with his chain saw, making firewood. He had little choice. One of the downed trees was fully blocking his driveway.

Keeter said he was chopping his way out so he could go help a nearby friend who had 16 trees down in his yard. He was hoping for the winds to ease so they could get some work done and then enjoy a good night's sleep.

Like many on the Hillside, he didn't sleep much Thursday night and into Friday.

"The house shook all night,'' Keeter said. Some of his neighbors said the winds hit their houses so hard they thought at first it was an earthquake.

Cleanup is expected to take days if not weeks.

Emergency opening of wood lots for disposal

The city has announced an emergency weeklong opening of wood lots in Anchorage and Eagle River. Residents can dump trees and limbs at the Anchorage Wood Lot at C Street and 100th Avenue from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. for a fee of $8 per pickup load. The Eagle River wood lot is at the Anchorage Regional Landfill site and will be open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., but closed Sunday.

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