Blown away

MAT-SU -- If April showers bring May flowers, what does a March hurricane bring?

A lot of work, many Valley residents will say. Staff from Spenard Builder's Supply said there's been a run on roofing materials and they've already made a special order for more shingles to meet the increased demands.

Around the Valley, shingles littered lawns and numerous signs for local businesses were damaged, destroyed or overturned. Power outages, frozen pipes and fallen trees left hundreds of homeowners scrambling while others had to contend with missing roofs, broken windows and damaged vehicles. About 20 people were at the Red Cross emergency shelter set up at Wasilla High School Friday morning.

Winter hurricane

Elliot Frazier from the National Weather Service said the strongest gust recorded in the Valley was 99 mph at 7:30 a.m. at a NWS information center on the Seward-Meridian Parkway. A gust of 70 mph was recorded at the Palmer airport at 10:31 p.m. -- the strongest gust recorded at that location. At the Glenn Highway information station on the Knik River Bridge, a gust of 62 mph was recorded, and a 62-mph gust was recorded at the new Wasilla Airport.

That's not to say, Frazier clarified, that those were the strongest gusts in the Valley.

"Sometimes the fickle fates of the gods throw a zephyr around your wind instruments," Frazier said, adding that while a gust of wind may only register 50 mph in one area, a few feet away that gust may register at 75 mph.

Frazier was compiling data about the windstorm that pummeled the Valley Wednesday and Thursday, while meteorologist Bob Hopkins was forecasting the weather headed this way. Hopkins said he didn't have specific information -- that was still being compiled -- but he was sure this wasn't the strongest wind to have hit the Valley. If you rank Southcentral's windiest storms from one to 10, he said, this would likely rank in the nine to 10 range.

"Ninety-nine miles an hour -- that's screaming," Hopkins said.

Not only is it screaming, it's well above the minimum range -- 73 to 75 miles per hour -- of a hurricane-level storm.

The winds weren't only gusting at hurricane force, Hopkins said they actually pack more of a punch than hurricanes that hit the southern states.

"A 50-mph blast of colder air is much more dense than a 50-mph blast of warm wind," Hopkins said. That increased density translates to more strength when the wind reaches the ground level and comes in contact with things like trees, roofs and signs.

The Seward-Meridian measuring site, Hopkins said, was usually the windiest site in the Valley, and that's where data backing up NWS wind warnings generally comes from.

Hopkins said the readings at the Palmer airport were likely lower because the airport is out of the windy Matanuska River beltway.

"Palmer's a bit out of the center of the channel," Hopkins said. He added that wind will sometimes be gusting around the area, but the information center at the airport will be quiet. In especially strong wind events, he said, the wind belt is wider, so high wind readings occasionally show up on the reader.

While strong winds are a part of life in the Valley, Hopkins said it was very unusual for Anchorage to get gusts approaching similar levels.

"For Anchorage to get really strong winds, it's maybe once a decade, or less than that," Hopkins said. As a result, Anchorage may sustain greater damage from a storm than the Valley. Out here, Hopkins explained, some items that aren't tacked down have already done their fair share of blowing around, and trees that are weak have, in many cases, already succumbed to the more ever-present winds.

Power woes

One of the many problems brought on by the high winds was numerous power outages caused by winds causing trees to fall on power lines or, in at least one case, transformers taken out by flying projectile, such as a piece of sheet metal.

Mike Pauley at Matanuska Electric Association said contract crews had been called in to help existing crews respond around the borough and get residents still without power up and running. According to a press release sent out Friday, MEA employees will work throughout the weekend to restore power to the estimated 400 customers in nearly 100 locations around the Valley still facing power outages Friday afternoon.

Bruce Scott at MEA said more than 5,000 customers were without power at the storm's height.

"We're in the middle of trying to respond and get people back on," Pauley said Friday. "Our operations division has been working at a hectic pace for the last three days."

Pauley said logistically, the storm made things difficult because the outages weren't concentrated in one area or caused by one event. Instead, crews were responding across the Valley to hundreds of smaller outages.

"The remaining outages tend to be the ones with more profound damage," Pauley said. "In general terms, the damage is extensive. It's going to take us many, many days of work to repair all the lines."

Closed clinic

After a power outage brought operations to a halt at the West Valley Medical Campus Thursday, Valley Hospital officials decided to shut the facility down for the day. According to Valley Hospital Association spokesperson Elizabeth Ripley, the center sustained a few hundred dollars worth of damage to the sign and from a lost piece of siding, but those costs may be small potatoes, comparatively.

"What I don't have is the cost of shutting down business all day," Ripley said. "Those were significant."

The Palmer hospital remained open, Ripley said, and ran off generators through the small outages that happened throughout the day. Surgeries were canceled, but the surgical team was asked to stay overnight in case weather prevented them from making it to the hospital Friday.

The emergency room, Ripley said, had increased visits -- 26 more than the daily average of 40 -- that were mostly attributed to the closure of the AIC clinic at the West Valley campus. Some were treated for weather-related injuries -- arms slammed in doors, a man who fell off a ladder while attempting to secure his roof, a youth with frostbite and the like. An extra physician's assistant and two more registered nurses were on shift to help deal with the increased patient load.

"We were ready and things went very, very well," Ripley said.

Mopping up

Friday afternoon, Mat-Su Borough Emergency Services Chief Jack Krill said crews were still responding to the occasional wind-related call, but the call volume was starting to return to normal.

The Wednesday night fire at the Kerttula farm property near Palmer was being monitored and there was a fire Friday on Buffalo Mine Road, but there were markedly fewer calls than Thursday. According to information from the borough's public information center, the week started with eight fire and 11 ambulance callouts -- fairly typical for the area. By Thursday, those numbers had increased to 35 fire and 38 ambulance callouts. A total of 14 fires were reported on Thursday alone, according to borough press releases.

The high winds and extensive coverage area has been a test for local emergency responders, but Krill said they've stepped up to the plate and met every challenge head-on.

"There's a high degree of commitment from our personnel," Krill said. The borough declared the windstorm an emergency disaster Thursday and an emergency operations center was set up at the Central Mat-Su Emergency Services building in Wasilla. At the center, staff from several agencies and groups, including the borough, the cities of Wasilla and Palmer, MEA, the Mat-Su Amateur Radio Emergency Services group and the Red Cross worked together to respond to situations as they arose. A chain of command was set up and people were appointed to various tasks that ranged from public relations to handling logistical needs like making sure emergency responders were fed, had a place to sleep, were well supplied with necessary items and knew where to respond next.

Wasilla Police Chief Don Savage said the command center would likely keep running through the weekend and staff would reassess what was needed Monday.

The windstorm, Savage said, prompted a Type-3 team, or a mostly local response. Between 50 and 80 people responded to calls throughout Thursday, he said. The event could easily have become a Type-2 event, he said, in which state responders get called in.

To some extent, the windstorm did prompt a state response. The team received assistance from the Division of Forestry throughout the week. Matt Weaver, fire information officer for the Division of Forestry's coastal region, said the division had responded to 18 Valley fires throughout the week, and 26 since March 1.

Krill said the end of the storm has brought about new concerns.

"Our fear right now is that, as the winds die down, people will start burning again," Krill said. "We may be instituting a burning ban."

More information about a potential burning ban in the Valley will be released when it becomes available. The Division of Forestry has continued to discourage open burning, including burning in barrels or of debris piles. Those heating with wood are encouraged to watch out for burning embers, and the division has suggested that people check their chimneys to ensure there has been no wind damage and a screen is in place at the top of the chimney that will catch burning embers.

Counting costs

Gov. Frank Murkowski was in the Valley and in Anchorage Thursday night and Friday to assess the damage done by the strong winds. Although no statewide declaration of disaster was made as of press time Friday, state officials are assessing the damage.

"He recognizes that Mat-Su was pretty hard-hit," said Murkowski's press secretary John Manly. Messages left with state staff regarding the assessment were not returned by Friday evening.

The borough is proceeding with their own assessment, Savage said. A borough assessor and an assessor from the Red Cross will be doing a "windshield survey," driving around the Valley and assessing damage, during the weekend. They'll be looking for three things, Savage said -- damage to public infrastructure, commercial businesses and to private homeowners.

Along with the informal survey, a hotline has been set up for people to call and report damage. More information about the hotline is available above, and the information may be key in determining whether the windstorm damage qualifies as a statewide disaster. Such a qualification may make more funds available to help repair the damage from the storm, which hit public infrastructure as hard or harder as business owners and private homeowners.

According to reports Friday afternoon, Colony Middle School had severe roof damage, as did the Cottonwood Public Safety Building. Wasilla High School had minor siding damage and other schools reported broken windows, loose siding and roof damage. Traffic lights along the Palmer-Wasilla Highway were inoperable Friday, turning each intersection into a four-way stop. Other traffic lights in the area were not working, and some had lost light shields or come unhooked from their poles.

As of Friday, State Farm and Allstate had both declared catastrophic losses to those they insure. If a statewide disaster is declared, Savage said the incident command center will likely be used to bring the numerous reporting agencies together so residents can fill out disaster reports in one area, similar to the reporting that took place during the Miller's Reach fire and last year's earthquake in the Interior.

Other agencies are hoping a disaster declaration will be made -- it may be the only way Valley Hospital and MEA, for example, can recoup some of their losses as a result of the wind.

"If there is disaster aid money available, we will certainly be applying for it," Pauley said. "It's already been very, very expensive. It's a big mess."