Borough holds joint press conference on New Year's wind storm

The new year in the Susitna Valley started with a severe wind storm that caused power outages that lasted for multiple days in some areas. 

Beginning early on New Year’s Day, high winds began causing problems in the Northern Susitna Valley.  For much of the weekend and into Monday, Matanuska Electric Association reported more than fifteen thousand of its members lost power at various times.  While those outages began in the Northern Valley, they pushed south into Palmer and Wasilla Saturday evening.  The number of outages, combined with the continuing poor conditions, mean it’s taking longer than usual to get power restored to some areas.  MEA spokeswoman Jennifer Castro says it will likely be a few days before power is fully restored.

“Right now, our anticipation of having every single last person on is going to be by the end of this week.”

One of the earlier outages reported affected Petersville early on New Year’s Day.  Castro says as of Monday afternoon, a crew was continuing to try to get power restored.

“We do have a crew that’s on-site up in Petersville right now.  They’re working on restoring the largest outage up there…and also restoring some of the nearby smaller outages.”

While wind gusts exceeded fifty miles per hour in the Northern Valley, Palmer and Wasilla saw even higher gusts.  Reports on social media show overturned airplanes and vehicle trailers in the Palmer area.  National Weather Service Meteorologist Aviva Braun says winds got significantly higher in the Southern Valley.

“Gusts as high as eighty-eight miles per hour at the Palmer Airport….We had a gust as high as ninety-one miles per hour at the Glenn Interchange at the same time.”

Braun says the wind warning for the Northern Valley has been extended through Wednesday evening.

The combination of power outages and other wind hazards led the Mat-Su Borough to close all of its facilities on Monday.  In addition, Mat-Su Borough School District Superintendent Dr. Randy Trani said at a press conference on Monday that schools will remain closed at least through Tuesday.

“Our challenge with trying to open school is just getting students safely to the schools. So we’re announcing today that we’ll be closed [Tuesday].  We’ll make an announcement by noon [Tuesday] if the closure extends.”

The Mat-Su Borough and Alaska State Troopers advise Valley residents to shelter in place and avoid travel where possible for the duration of the storm.  Red Cross shelters have been set up in Palmer and Wasilla, but none were available in the Northern Valley as of Monday afternoon.

Mat-Su Borough Manager Mike Brown signed a disaster emergency declaration Monday morning.  Governor Mike Dunleavy then issued a state disaster declaration for multiple areas, including the Mat-Su, early Monday afternoon.

KTNA is continuing to monitor the situation.  Between newscasts, you can find the latest information at this post and on our Facebook page.