Heavy, wet snow creates problems on peninsula

• HEA power outages, flooded roads plague Kenai Peninsula

By Naomi Klouda
Homer Tribune
Power crews were still working on restoring electricity across the Kenai Peninsula on Wednesday after heavy snow and winds knocked out lines in many areas from Nikiski to Nanwalek on Monday and Tuesday. At 9:30 a.m. today, Homer Electric Association issued its most recent update saying the three villages across Kachemak Bay were operating on the emergency back-up generators while crews worked to restore power. An estimated 2,000 homes were impacted, most of those in the central Kenai Peninsula area.
A look back through recent history shows the Homer area had a wetter than normal November this year, with total precipation at 3.40 inches.
Climatologist Pete Olsson with the Alaska Climate Center pulled numbers for Homer and Kenai, and found that Kenai experienced 1.72 inches of precipitation, about .94 inches below normal for the month of November.
“I thought that was interesting – you were wet in Homer while Kenai was dryer than normal,” Olsson said.
In October of this year, Homer saw 1.7 inches of precipitation, which was half its average amount. In 2004, five years ago, October saw 2.93 inches and November had .80 inches less than average. Ten years ago, in 1999, Homer saw 1.58 inches in October and 2.23 inches in November.
In fact, over the past 10 years, the numbers are all over the place, showing how weather variations make tracking climate change so difficult for climatologists like Olsson.
“The problem is, we can look at 10 different years and all will be significantly different. That’s just normal climate variability and that is what makes it so difficult to tease out climate change. We have such annual variation,” Olsson said. “We’re looking for a signal that varies over decades. It might be on the average of half an inch per year, but year-to-year is harder to sort.”
Weather havoc brought icy rain and weighty snow that froze at night and caused power outages as well. As if that weren’t enough, Mt. Redoubt started making moves toward an eruption, which prompted the Alaska Volcano Observatory to update its status to code yellow, “advisory.”
“The lava dome in the summit crater remains potentially unstable and could collapse with little or no warning,” the advisory states. “A major dome collapse event would likely result in significant ash production, hot block-and-ash flows, and flooding in the Drift River Valley.”
Homer Electric crews continued to respond to power outages around the central Kenai Peninsula on Tuesday morning. The heavy, wet snow that started falling early Tuesday morning resulted in outages throughout the area, including Kasilof, Soldotna, Funny River, Sterling, Kenai and Nikiski, said HEA spokesman Joe Gallagher. About 1,500 homes were out of electricity up north, while Homer remained with power.
In addition to these three area-wide outages, HEA responded to dozens of small outages impacting neighborhoods around the central Peninsula.
HEA crews were out in the field since 3 a.m. Tuesday at work trying to restore power. Dense snow has brought down power lines and toppled trees that came into contact with the lines, Gallagher said.
In Homer, the situation was complicated as well by the havoc of heavy snowfall, which brought as much as 18 inches to the higher elevations and a mixture of snow and rain to the bench.
The Homer Department of Public Works crews were working to keep on top of three main tasks: sanding icy roads, plowing snow and keeping storm drains open to prevent flooded roads, said Director Carey Meyer.
“We had between 12 and 18 inches of snow on the higher elevations. It did require splitting up the crew, with some doing snow removal, some sanding, and others keeping storm drains and culverts open,” Meyer said. “Normally, you have all your guys focused on snow removal or drainage issues, but we had to split the crew and deal with the unique issues occurring at different elevations.”
Icy streets made even walking to the car tricky in the freeze-thaw cycle of weather. It caused more than a few fender benders and sent cars into ditches.
Homer Fire Chief Bob Painter said his medics had not responded to a high volume of calls, nonetheless, and are able to navigate the roads for responding to calls. However, he said he is keeping an eye on the weather and potential power outages for any problems.
HEA put out a warning that, due to the conditions, it is likely the duration of the outages could be extend throughout most of the day. HEA also sent out a warning telling people to stay away from downed power lines and report any downed lines to Homer Electric.
According to the National Weather Service forecast for the Kenai Peninsula, that mix of rain and snow is likely to continue through today, with isolated snow showers after midnight and “little snow accumulation.” Temperatures were expected to dip to 15 tonight, with Thursday predicted for clouds and highs in the mid 20s to lower 30s. By Thursday and Friday, lows are expected to creep down to 5 degrees, with a warmer weekend to follow in the high 30s by Sunday night.