Borough officials address efforts following earthquake

PALMER — Mat-Su Borough officials addressed gathered media on Monday at 5 p.m., 57 hours after a magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck near Point Mackenzie. Mat-Su Borough Director of Emergency Services Otto Feather began and conducted the press conference to address concerns of damage throughout the borough following the quake.

“The worst damage that we saw during this event was places near the epicenter out in the Point Mackenzie area. The epicenter of the earthquake was actually in Point Mackenzie,” Mat-Su Borough Director of Public Works Terry Dolan said.

The quake occurred during a shift change, and Feather said that an all-call was placed. Feather said that approximately 200 employees went to work following the quake, supplying manpower for 11 ambulances. The borough normally runs at a capacity of four ambulances available. Feather established an Emergency Operations Center by 9 a.m., and made contact with other liaisons throughout the borough and state. Though there was widespread concern of a shake of that size followed by seemingly unlimited aftershocks, Feather said that the damage was limited.

“By noon on Friday we had pretty much gotten back to a normal emergency response tempo that we see everyday. As fast as it came, it started to die off just as quick. So those initial issues that we had to resolve we took care of very quickly, working with all of our partners. We were able to turn our attention to the bigger concerns of infrastructure,” Feather said. “From noon on we spent a lot of time waiting for the other shoe to drop. It didn’t, thankfully.”

Feather communicated with the Alaska Railroad, local law enforcement, and the Red Cross. The city of Wasilla donated the space at the Menard Center as use for a shelter, though very few victims utilized the shelter.

“We had that port in the storm if you will that allowed us to cover down on those people who did have issues with shelter,” Feather said.

Within the first hour, emergency services responded to 11 calls. Fires broke out at four locations on Friday, with three in the first hour and two directly linked to the quake. After noon, borough officials took time to assess infrastructure.

ROADS

Dolan said on Monday that all roads in the Mat-Su Borough are passable, though some are down to one lane. The outlier is Vine Road, which crews will begin work to repair on Tuesday. Detours were established around Vine Road, which now features an impassable stretch of roadway that cracked and buckled, almost immediately. Earthquake damage to roads was mainly seen in marshy areas or roads built over swamps. Some of the most commonly seen damages were shoulder sloughing at guardrails, and a seemingly infinite number of pavement cracks.

“Point Mackenzie road took a lot of damage, especially in the places where it was built over the top of marshy areas and that is consistent with damage that we’ve seen in other locations,” Dolan said.

Vine Road was the most dramatically affected road, officials said, followed by Point Mackenzie Road, which suffered eight-foot cracks in some areas. West Susitna Parkway suffered over 50 cracks in the same area.

“Yesterday we repaired seven separate damaged areas in the first six miles of Point Mackenzie Road, so we’re making good progress there,” Dolan said.

With a fresh coat of snow, Dolan said that assessing damage will take longer in winter conditions and plow drivers traveling over possibly cracked roads must go slower.

“It’s very difficult to assess minor damage when there’s snow on the ground so this assessment really probably will not end until next spring,”

Todd Smith has been managing the six Department of Transportation repair sites on the Glenn Highway north of Eklutna since Friday. DOT officials immediately dispersed to assess areas of damage that caused the most concern to safety and the most impact to infrastructure, and continue to make those assessments daily.

“The repairs that we’re doing now are temporary in fashion so that we could restore service to our infrastructure, but we are at this time looking at what is going to be needed to make those permanent repairs at locations inside of the Mat-Su Borough,” Smith said.

All sites are open, but with fewer lanes, gravel roads, and speed limit reductions, DOT asks Alaskan drivers to be careful. The DOT will also work with experts in their assessments and repairs, not just looking at how to fix the problem now but what the long term solution may be.

“DOT just asks that you continue to travel those sites with extreme caution and yield to the contractors and their staff that are out there trying to make these repairs finally,” Smith said.

Smith echoed the pride he felt in seeing Alaskans come together following the quake.

“It’s a pretty awesome, awesome response to a very dynamic situation. It makes me pretty proud to work in this community. I can say that the public has been very patient very understanding, and well done Alaska,” Smith said.

Vine Road, Point Mackenzie Road, West Susitna Parkway, Beaver Lake Road, Damaree Road, Don Young Road, Hemlock Drive, Horseshoe Lake Road, Lark Spur Hill Circle, Lu Young Lane, South Trunk Road, Colleen Street, Settlers Bay Drive and Sushana Drive are the borough roads damaged during the quake.

The DOT road projects related to the earthquake in the borough include Glenn Highway Mile 29.3, Glenn Parks Interchange Palmer Exit, Glenn Highway Mile 55 Moose Creek, Glenn Highway Mile 58.5, Clark-Wolverine Road Mile 5.5 Creek Canyon and Pittman Road Mile .7.

Mat-Su Borough

Borough manager John Moosey addressed what concerns he dealt with beginning on Friday Morning. Crews began inspecting facilities for damage on Friday and worked through the weekend. XL insurance, which provides insurance for both the Mat-Su Borough School District and the Mat-Su Borough itself will meet with both on Tuesday, and have been an active participant in recovery since the quake hit.

“They were informed immediately of this and they have been very responsive which, they should be, we’re paying them,” Moosey said.

Moosey addressed the question on everyone’s mind going into the damage assessment.

“We’re putting this together and you want to know how in the heck are we going to pay for this,” Moosey said.

Moosey met with FEMA Monday afternoon and many of the borough staff have thorough experience in emergency response following flooding in 2012 and the Sockeye Fire in 2016. Moosey was in constant communication with city officials. Moosey saw that the president had said that no expense was too great, and wanted to let the president know that they will remind him of that.

“Everybody I have talked to has been effected by it, nobody has been devastated or destroyed by it. I’m very thankful for that,” Moosey said.

Borough mayor Vern Halter was sitting in front of his woodstove with a load of firewood when the quake hit. He said he had Moosey on the phone by 9 a.m. Friday and later in the day, sent Deputy Mayor Matthew Beck to sign the disaster declaration. Halter marveled at the lack of injury considering the amount of concentration of students in schools. Out of approximately 69,000 students within the Anchorage School District and MSBSD, the worst injury sustained was a broken wrist, which occurred in Anchorage, he said.

“I just want to thank all of our teachers for taking care of our kids,” Halter said.

Halter took to Facebook on Sunday night, interacting with residents who were distraught at the lack of information provided by the borough.

“I just want to make sure the world knows, everybody knows the Mat-Su Borough, the staff, the public works, EMS, they were at it right away. It would’ve been nice to have a press conference quicker,” Halter said.

Feather addressed the lack of information as a failure during a time of relief that the damage was not worse.

“What I failed to recognize is that I had the information that things were good and we did not communicate appropriately to the rest of the community, and I think that we failed in terms of our ability to make sure we were getting out timely actual information so that folks could feel comfortable with what was going on,” Feather said. “I take full responsibility for that misstep and it won’t happen again.”

CITIES

Wasilla Mayor Bert Cottle was present for the beginning of the meeting, but had to leave for the Wasilla City Council meeting prior to addressing media. Palmer Mayor Edna DeVries said that she was thankful that only minor damage was sustained within the city of Palmer. DeVries was appreciative, and lauded the community for communicating on Facebook about gas station and grocery store availability.

Houston Middle School sustained possibly the most impactful damage of any place affected by the quake. MSBSD Superintendent Dr. Monica Goyette said that Houston Middle will most likely not be used for the duration of the 2018-19 school year. Senators Dan Sullivan and Lisa Murkowski visited the most damaged sites by helicopter with borough and city officials. Houston Mayor Virgie Thompson emotionally addressed the media about the scene inside of HMS. Thompson spent 24 years teaching in HMS.

“Students and staff make a school, not a building, and we will move forward,” Thompson said.

UTILITIES

Enstar Natural Gas Communications Manager Lindsay Hobson addressed media to detail the inspections that Enstar began on Friday morning.

“We have completed a leak survey of the entire transmission,” Hobson said.

Crews continue to work to check 4,488 miles of pipeline from Houston to Homer. Enstar received over 1,000 pending orders from customers beginning on Friday, and had that number down to 15 Monday morning, 12 of which were in the Valley, and have already been resolved.

“We want people to discover those gas leaks,” Hobson said.

Workers from the lower 48 have arrived to assist crews in repairing damage. As for many of the service providers who went to work after the quake, it was all hands on deck at Enstar.

“We had one employee who retired on Nov. 9 after 46 years with Enstar. He was back on the job on Nov. 30 helping us look for leaks,” Hobson said.

Julie Estey, Director of External Affairs for Matanuska Electric Association lauded the work of linemen in repairing damage.

“Our line crew and our support crews never cease to amaze us. They did an amazing job,” Estey said.

Estey said that MEA was surprised, but always prepared. Most of the damage sustained was located at substations in transformers. When oil in the transformers moves around, level alarms go off as a precautionary measure and they shut down. Crews checked each and every substation and power was returned to the majority of members on 3:23 a.m. on Saturday. Much of the damage that was sustained happened in Eagle River.

Amy Hill Coordinates the Clean Water Program for the Department of Environmental Conservation in Wasilla. Hill has not been able to return to her office since Friday, but said that no boil water notices had been issued for either the city of Palmer or Wasilla, but some boil notices were issued to subdivisions. Hill had issues with her own well and ran a hose to flush the system after about an hour. Hill encouraged residents with water issues to call her at 376-1861 or seek out the work of a professional if water or sewer issues persist. Home water tests from the Mat-Su Test Lab or ARS Analytica.

Mat-Su Borough Emergency Manager Casey Cook said that links on the Borough website allows homeowners to enter sustained damage into their system. The State’s individual assistance program application period online and by phone begins on Tuesday. Homeowners can go to ready.alaska.gov or contact Cook at 861-8004.

Contact Frontiersman reporter Tim Rockey at tim.rockey@frontiersman.com.