Wednesday power outages affect 25,000 MEA customers

UPDATE (3:30 p.m. Wednesday) MEA crews had restored power to all but about 1,700 MEA customers, with the outages widely spread. According to an online power outage map, about 500 customers in the Schrock/Wasilla Fishhook area. Other outages across the Mat-Su were scattered.

Original story:

WASILLA — Valley residents woke Wednesday morning to widespread power outages that affected some 25,000 Matanuska Electric Association co-op members — a little less than the co-op’s overall total — the result of a weather system that brought high winds and rain to Southcentral Alaska.

By 9:30 a.m., around 6,000 MEA customers remained without power, according to spokeswoman Julie Estey, who added that the outage was a big one. The MEA Facebook page initially reported outages around 5:45 a.m. In the Butte, Hunter Creek and Willow areas.

“It is a significant one for us,” she said, adding that downed trees along a main transmission line serving the Palmer-Wasilla Highway corridor along with Big Lake and the Meadow Lakes area caused the outages.

Power seemed to return in stages along the Palmer-Wasilla Highway, where many businesses were restored between 7 and 9 a.m.

As of 9 a.m. Estey said arround 4,000 co-op members in the Eagle River, Birchwood and Thunderbird Falls areas remained without power, with the remaining 2,000 scattered among the Butte, Meadow Lakes and Palmer-Wasilla core service areas. She urged members to check the co-op’s Facebook page for the latest updates. The number to report an outage is 746-7697. Customers can also check the cooperative's website at www.mea.coop, which includes an up-to-date map of area outages.

“All of our crews are out and we have even brought in some contract crews,” Estey said. “We participated in a conference call with the National Weather Service yesterday and anticipated the weather system and had the extra crews ready.”