Heavy snow causes power outages throughout Mat-Su

Heavy, wet snow with accumulation totals higher than originally forecasted caused several power outages throughout the Mat-Su Borough Tuesday afternoon and into the evening.

Reports of power outages began late Tuesday morning, with minor outages reported in Fairview Loop and Houston that were quickly repaired and power restored.

Throughout the late afternoon and into the evening, as snowfall began to get heavier and total amounts grew larger, outages were reported to the Matanuska Electric Association (MEA), who kept residents updated through their Facebook page.

Outages were again reported on Fairview Loop and W. Armstrong Road in Houston, and by 7:00 pm, MEA reported several large outages throughout the Mat-Su including Houston, Meadow Lakes, Fairview Loop and Big Lake. They had all their responding crews and called additional contract crews to assist in restoring power. According to MEA, the heavy wet snow was causing lots of snow unloading on the lines.

Later that evening, MEA posted that 2 transmission level outages impacted around 3,000 resident in the Meadow Lakes, Houston, and Wasilla area.

“We have a crew patrolling the lines checking for any hazards or issues causing the transmission line outage. We have several other crews responding to outages in Talkeetna, KGB, Fairview Loop and Meadow Lakes, and Eagle River. With the heavy, wet snow, it is slow going for our crews out there and we anticipate many more outages throughout the night.”

MEA reported on their Facebook page that on average, most outages take between 2-4 hours to restore as crews first respond to the largest and longest outages first, and they must manually patrol the lines, check for any current or lingering issues or hazards that resulted in the outage before work can begin to restore power.

As of 9:30 pm Tuesday evening, MEA posted they were hoping to have patrols wrapped up within an hour and start working on the restoration process, asking residents for continued patience as the crews work to restore power.

Meanwhile, the National Weather Service in Anchorage measured five inches of snow as of 5:45 Tuesday evening. 6-9 inches of snow is likely for the city through Wednesday afternoon, with the heaviest snow expected to fall overnight.

Anchorage, the Matanuska Valley, and the western Kenai Peninsula are under Winter Weather advisories through Wednesday afternoon for the heavy snowfall.

With the heavy amounts of snow, have a plow or shovel plan in place if people need to be out and about.

The storm should move east Wednesday afternoon, but will usher in much drier and colder air, causing temperatures to fall from the 20s Wednesday to the single digits this weekend.

Please report power outage through the SmartHub Account https://mea.smarthub.coop/Login.html