Snowfall causes brief power outages

WASILLA — Several hundred Matanuska Electric Association customers were briefly without power on Monday night and Tuesday morning.

According to MEA staff, about 100 members in the Meadow Lakes area suffered outages on Monday night. Both outages suffered were due to long awaited heavy snowfall in the area. Early Tuesday morning between 6:30 and 7:45 a.m., MEA members in the Knik-Goose Bay area went without power. The outages were immediately repaired and all of the tree related power outages suffered by MEA customers this year have come from fallen trees that were outside of the existing right of way around MEA power lines.

This year, MEA finished their first seven-year cycle for their right of way clearing program. Staff with MEA said that outages are only as common as inclement weather events and are difficult to predict. As of Tuesday afternoon, all of the MEA customers that had suffered outages in the previous 12 hours had power once again.