Alaska News

Power restored to most of Anchorage after snow-laden trees cleared

Thousands of electric customers in Anchorage and the Mat-Su faced outages for most of Wednesday, in the wake of overnight snowfall that began the season's accumulation and broke a precipitation record in the city for September.

But by Wednesday night, there were fewer than 10 Chugach Electric customers without power and no Matanuska Electric Association customers without power.

"We are blissfully outage-free," MEA spokesperson Julie Estey said. "The last outage was restored just after 6. Crews are now home resting and they deserve it."

On Wednesday morning, Estey said, 3,276 MEA members were without power. The outage was primarily caused by "snow-loaded trees and iced branches interfering with the lines," according to the company's Facebook page.

Things were also looking up in Anchorage by Wednesday night, with fewer than 10 customers around the city without power.

Thousands of mid-Hillside residents lost power Wednesday morning after a feeder at the O'Malley substation tripped, which also affected customers around Dowling Road. Chugach Electric said another outage was reported in Muldoon.

The outage's root cause proved to be the same as that of other outages across the state Wednesday: trees bent by snow and ice onto power lines.

ADVERTISEMENT

The snowfall came after a day of mixed heavy rains and snow that caused problems across the state. Minor flooding Tuesday in the Mat-Su affected several homes in Willow and threatened some Houston homes, with Fairbanks schools closed Wednesday due to dense snow which blanketed the city and caused power outages.

William Ludwig, a senior forecaster at the National Weather Service's Anchorage office in Sand Lake, said the facility had recorded 2.5 inches of snow overnight -- an amount unofficial reports put on the low end of the spectrum for the city.

"We had a guy in Muldoon report 3.9 inches," Ludwig said. "It's probably between 2.5 and 4 inches across town, probably higher on the Hillside."

At least one Anchorage monitoring station reported breaking the city's September precipitation record overnight, according to a Twitter message from the weather service early Wednesday.

That rainfall, combined with Wednesday night's falling temperatures, might present an ice hazard for back roads in residential areas.

"There is a lot of water lying around, so people should be careful," Ludwig said. "The main roads will generally be OK because they'll have time to melt and cars driving over them."

Chris Klint

Chris Klint is a former ADN reporter who covered breaking news.

Megan Edge

Megan Edge is a former reporter for Alaska Dispatch and Alaska Dispatch News.

ADVERTISEMENT