Blown AwayBy

November, 17 2006

Michael Rovito

Frontiersman

MAT-SU - Fierce winds kept electric crews and emergency workers on their toes over the past few days, as howling gusts topping 80 mph hit the Valley.

The Central Landfill was closed Wednesday due to high winds and the National Weather Service issued a wind chill advisory warning of wind chill factors well below zero.

Greg Goodale, the landfill's manager of solid waste, said the risk of flying debris, subzero wind chill and safety concerns for workers at the landfill's disposal area prompted the closure. Trash collectors who still picked up trash Wednesday - something Goodale said he advised against - held the garbage in their trucks, with some taking it to Anchorage.

Officials from the Mat-Su Borough reported some sheds and a tent anchored in concrete had been toppled, along with the Trunk Road exit sign on the eastbound Parks Highway. In Palmer, a wooden baseball dugout was seen upside down next to the Dorothy Swanda Jones building.

Tom Dang, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Anchorage, said the strongest blast of wind in the Valley registered 85 mph in Wasilla, just a few miles from the Palmer border. Dang said this week's wind was brought on by extremely cold air in the Interior and a strong low pressure system over the Gulf of Alaska - the same one that pummeled Juneau with more than a foot of snow earlier this week - creating a wind tunnel effect over the Valley.

In Talkeetna, Caitlin Palmer - a director at the Alaska Mountaineering School - said roofing had been ripped off some houses and downed trees had created a mess around town. Palmer said Thursday that she was just waiting for it to be over.

&#8220We expect it to be dying down a bit” over the next few days, Dang said.

While strong winds are nothing new to the Valley, Dang said the unusual thing about this week's weather event was the consistency with which the wind blew.

Instead of random gusts, sustained wind left many with burning eyes from flying dust and power outages across the Valley.

Central Mat-Su fire chief Jack Krill said calls about downed power lines and fallen trees made up the majority of calls to emergency workers over the course of the week.

Krill said there has been &#8220a lot of little things” that have been called in, including what some residents thought was a fire in Sutton after falling debris caused violent sparks from a power line.

Along with the wind, borough officials issued an air quality advisory for the eastern parts of the Valley that expires 8 a.m. today.

A borough news release blamed the high winds for the air quality problem, and advised children and the elderly to avoid prolonged exertion while outdoors.

Crews from the Matanuska Energy Association were stretched so thin in dealing with wind-related calls that contractors had to be called in to assist. Kim Floyd, MEA's manager of government and corporate communications, said power outages were reported across the Valley, but crews were working around the clock to keep up with reports of outages.

The National Weather Service is predicting clear skies through Friday, with the wind steadily dying down.

Temperatures are expected to remain just above 10 degrees for the weekend.

Contact Michael Rovito at 352-2252 or michael.rovito@frontiersman.com.