Strong winds whip through the Matanuska and Susitna valleys

TALKEETNA— The Matanuska Electric Association  reports that up to 600 residents in Sutton, Palmer Wasilla and Trapper Creek are currently still without power due to the windstorm that continues to pummel the Matanuska valley.The main causes of yesterday’s and today’s power outages are fallen trees on power lines, broken power poles and snapped lines. MEA spokesman Wes Lindsey said that all of MEA’s line crew were working last night and today to fix the lines. The outages also affected MEA’s headquarters in Palmer. Their back-up generator didn’t fire up and consequently  MEA’s phone system was down for two hours.

Traffic lights were out of order and anecdotal reports surfaced of a campershell, port-a-potties and fences being blown around in the core area. The strong winds whipped throughout a large swath of Southcentral, including the Susitna and Matanuska valleys but also blew strong in the Thompson pass area, Valdez and the Copper River area.

The National Weather Service reports that the highest wind gusted at 87 mph this morning at 6 a.m. between Wasilla and Palmer. Sustained winds blew at 54 mph. In Talkeetna, the strongest gust measured 46 miles per hour at 9 pm last night.