Storm causes accidents, buries Valley

MAT-SU - The first big winter storm of the year was a doozy, sending cars into ditches and into each other, causing spotty power outages and closing Mat-Su College for a day.

As of press time Thursday evening the snow was still falling sporadically but the National Weather Service predicted it would peter out overnight.

Thursday, a jack-knifed tractor-trailer closed the Glenn Highway just past Palmer heading toward Sutton for a good percentage of the morning. The highway opened back up shortly after noon.

“No injuries were reported, it just took awhile to get the wrecker out there and get the semi removed,” Alaska State Trooper spokeswoman Megan Peters said.

Later, a different wreck, this one involving three vehicles, one of which was towing a trailer with two horses inside, closed the Old Glenn Highway. At 4:30 p.m. Peters said it appeared officers would be there two more hours conducting an investigation.

Wednesday, Palmer police officers spent their morning trying to figure out how to get a semi pulling two tanker trailers up a hill on the highway in town.

“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. Remaley said it took awhile because they had to explore all their options and settle on the right one. Should they unhook a trailer and get another tractor? Call for a tow? The eventual solution came in the form of a city grader that pulled the semi up the hill.

Remaley said a number of his officers stopped on the way in to work to help ditch-divers.

“It’s been awhile since I’ve seen one like this, where we actually had a lot of sustained snowfalls,” in a short period of time, Remaley said. He’d have to think back probably a decade to remember another one.

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.” The Alaska State Troopers urged against driving even as fast as the posted speed limit.

Elsewhere in the Valley, police and emergency radios crackled most of the week with officers and rescuers responding to car crashes. A quick run-down of trooper reports since Monday yields the following snow-related crashes:

n A school bus was rear-ended on the Parks Highway near Johnson Road Monday. No injuries.

n A Chevrolet Astro van smacked a guardrail at the interchange of the Glenn and Parks highways Monday. No injuries.

n A woman was hospitalized briefly after a rollover accident at Linlu Lane and Fairview Loop on Tuesday.

n A Toyota Matrix hit a tractor-trailer on the Parks Highway at Hyer Road on Wednesday. No injuries.

n A Saturn sedan drifted into a snow berm on the Palmer-Wasilla Highway near 49th State Street and hit a guardrail.

n A Chevrolet sedan was rear-ended at about Mile 39 Parks Highway when the same blowing snow that covered the sedan’s windshield, causing the driver to slow down, also blinded the driver behind her.

The Matanuska Electric Association reported the snow caused spotty outages throughout its coverage area. Spokeswoman Lorali Carter said the snow tends t

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

But then it usually takes an awful lot of snow to shut down Valley schools.

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

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.