(Feb. 13, 2001) Winter returned to Southcentral Alaska with a snowstorm that blanketed yards from Talkeetna to Homer and had residents digging out from under the deluge Monday.

Nearly a foot of snow fell on Anchorage and the Kenai Peninsula, while some places in the Mat-Su area received more than a foot and a half. The storm was the biggest so far this winter, National Weather Service officials said.

In Anchorage, police responded to more than 100 reports of vehicles in ditches and nearly a dozen accidents involving injuries.

Police said a woman was killed when she turned her car into oncoming traffic on Tudor Road from MacInnes Street, just west of Lake Otis Parkway. She was identified as Linda L. Baker, 53. Two other vehicles were involved in the crash, police said. Two occupants in one of them were taken to Providence Alaska Medical Center, while the driver of the third was treated at the scene.

Another death occurred about 2:30 p.m. on the Glenn Highway near Sutton, where a soutbound Subaru station wagon clipped the bucket of a John Deere front-loader being used to clear snow from a driveway, Alaska State Troopers said. The impact killed Matthew J. English, 26, the passenger in the Subaru. He is thought to be from Idaho. The car driver and loader operator were uninjured, the troopers said.

In Mat-Su, where some of the heaviest snowfall was reported, nearly three dozen school buses were delayed by the snow, including a dozen that were still stuck by midafternoon, School District spokeswoman Kim Floyd said. After-school activities were canceled in Mat-Su and in Anchorage.

At Hatcher Pass, three avalanches closed the road above the Motherlode Lodge, state parks officials said. Nearly three feet of snow fell in the area between Sunday and Monday afternoon, ranger Dennis Heikes said. Crews were hoping to have the road cleared today.

Plow crews struggled Monday to keep up with the deluge, which coated roads with fresh snow as quickly as the trucks could push it off.

''It's terrible,'' said Kurt Devon, who supervises road maintenance in Mat-Su for the state. ''Every piece of equipment we have is rolling right now.''

The storm might hardly be worth mentioning in a normal year. But this year's mild winter hasn't been normal.

The foot of snow at the Anchorage airport was the most in a single storm this winter, weather service officials said. It accounted for a third of the total snow that has fallen this season.

Anchorage is lagging behind in total snowfall with a paltry 35 inches compared with the normal amount of about 70 inches by this time of year.

The snowfall was welcome news for some people in Southcentral who have been sweating the lack of winterlike weather.

Special Olympics President Ben Stevens said organizers of the upcoming games had a backup plan if they didn't get enough snow: Instead of skis or snowshoes, the athletes would use sneakers.

Iditarod Executive Director Stan Hooley said this weekend's snow almost certainly clinched the decision to make Wasilla the site for the restart. Even just a week ago, Hooley said barring a miracle he was sure the start would be moved to Willow for lack of snow.

Unfortunately, the snow came too late to save this weekend's Anchorage Fur Rendezvous World Championship Sled Dog Races.

Even with new snow, the four days remaining until the traditional race start isn't enough time to prepare a safe trail or give fair notice to mushers and dogs coming from the Lower 48, Canada and Europe, said Jeff Barnhardt, president of the Alaskan Sled Dog and Racing Association.

Organizers called off the annual sprint dog contest last week because trails leading from Tozier Track off Tudor Road featured a dangerous obstacle course of thin snow over thick ice.

Setting 20 miles of solid trail over fresh powder can't be done overnight, he said.