Power out to Palmer, schools restored

PALMER — Power has been restored to most of the Valley after windy conditions knocked out service to more than 2,000 people and three schools this morning.

A few pockets remain in the dark north of Sutton and in Petersville, Matanuska Electric Association spokeswoman Lorali Carter said, but the large outage that affected Palmer was fixed around 9:15 a.m.

Carter said weather related outages started this morning around 5 a.m. Debris blew into the lines cutting power to the core Palmer area, including Sherrod and Swanson elementary schools and Academy Charter School.

Before school started, Swanson principal Mary Kate Mayer determined her school was too dark to safely accommodate the students. She said Swanson has an emergency cooperation plan in place with Sherrod, and Sherrod’s back-up generators were providing the school with more power.

“We made the decision, because it was very dark and a little bit slippery, to go to Sherrod where they had more power,” Mayer said.

Sherrod principal Mark Hoffman said the Swanson students were dropped off two bus loads at a time. The Swanson students staged in the gym, and when about half the buses had unloaded, the power came back on.

“Everything’s fine now, except I got a lake in my parking lot. One of the drains plugged up,” Hoffman said.

Once her students were bused back to Swanson, Mayer said everything had worked out just fine.

“The teachers were fabulous. Everyone worked together. We’re ready for a normal day, I hope,” Mayer said.

Without back-up generators, Academy Charter postponed classes until 10 a.m. Assistant principal Jennifer Wedge said even without power, there were no serious problems.

“It was very smooth. The parents were very understanding,” Wedge said.

Carter said she could not say how soon power will be restored to the other areas.

“Crews are working on it now. We will get it restored as soon as possible,” she said.

Contact Todd L. Disher at todd.disher@frontiersman.com or 352-2252.