Monday’s power outage affected 28,000

WASILLA — A snapped guy wire resulted in a power outage on Monday affecting approximately 28,000 Matanuska Electric Association (MEA) customers.

MEA spokeswoman Julie Estey said a guy wire near Seward-Meridian Parkway and Bogard snapped around 2 p.m., sprung up and clipped a major transmission line. Estey said that resulted in power surge idling five substations in the greater Wasilla and Big Lake areas.

“We were able to identify the area (of the break) quickly. Once we were able to isolate the trouble, we were able to bring power back on,” Estey said. “Everyone was back on by approximately 3:30 p.m.”

Estey said she was unaware of long-term effects from the outage. She added that the area affected was one of MEA’s most populated. The outage affected area businesses, homes as well as traffic devices. Traffic lights were out causing driving delays throughout the area.

“We are really proud of our crews,” Estey said.

In an unrelated episode, Estey said an approximate 500 customers in the Seldon/Lucille area of Wasilla experienced as power outage early Tuesday, Aug. 23 around 8 a.m. Estey said high winds in the area downed a tree causing a local line breakage. Power to all customers was back on by noon.