Snow slows traffic; semi gets stuck on hill

MAT-SU - With snow not expected to let up today, law enforcement agencies are urging caution, Mat-Su College canceled classes and the electric company says scattered outages have been reported.

According to the National Weather Service, snow is expected to continue through this afternoon, with between 8 and 14 inches of accumulation. A winter storm warning is in effect until 4 p.m.

In Palmer, officers spent their morning trying to figure out how to get semi pulling two tanker trailers up a hill on the Glenn Highway.

“He was just stopped in the middle of the highway,” and couldn't get traction, Palmer police Lieutenant Tom Remaley said. “Because he had a double trailer, he couldn't really back up because the back trailer wouldn't really go where you want it to.”

He said he and his officers spent a couple hours directing traffic around the truck. The road was down to one lane that whole time. Remaley said the whole thing took awhile because they had to find the right option. Should they unhook a trailer and get another tractor? Call for a tow? The eventual solution came in the form of a city of Palmer grader that pulled the semi up a hill. And that was that.

Remaley said he's had scattered reports on the conditions from his officers and staff. One said it took two and a half hours each way to get to Anchorage. Another is waiting at home for a wrecker to come pull him out of his driveway. His own drive to work that day, Remaley said, included a pit stop to help someone in a ditch. Which is better than one of his officers who had to make three such stops on his way in.

A long-time member of the Palmer force, Remaley said he’d have to think back maybe a decade to remember a similar storm with this much snow in this short of a time span. Plow trucks are working hard, he said, but are having trouble keeping up.

“If people don't have anywhere to go, stay home,” Remaley said. “If they've got to go somewhere they've got to slow way down, plan ahead, keep their lights working and their windshields clean.”

The snow also wreaked havoc on the Valley's commuters. Anchorage police said in a press release Tuesday night that about 20 vehicles went into the ditch on the Glenn Highway. That amounted to 30 percent of that day's total number of calls for what the department labels “vehicles in distress.”

Also Tuesday night, the Alaska State Troopers said they were being kept busy assisting motorists in the ditch, especially around the Glenn Highway's Knik Bridge. Visibility was extremely low, trooper spokeswoman Megan Peters wrote in a press release.

“Traveling the posted speed limit is not advisable,” she wrote.

Elsewhere in the Valley, police and emergency radios crackled most of the day Tuesday and today with officers and rescuers assisting motorists.

The Matanuska Electric Association reported the snow has been causing spotty outages between Eagle River and Big Lake. Spokeswoman Lorali Carter said the snow tends to build up on the lines.

“When that falls off it causes the lines to move and possibly touch each other,” she said.

As of this morning, she said, probably around 400 customers were out of power.

As for schools, Mat-Su College posted a notice on its website that classes were canceled due to a power outage. But the Mat-Su Borough School District reported no school cancellations.

“As long as the buses can travel safely we are open,” district spokeswoman Catherine Esary said.