Downed power lines trigger brief Election Day outages, Old Seward Highway closure

Downed power poles in South Anchorage Tuesday morning closed the Old Seward Highway for much of the day and briefly left more than 3,100 without power as Election Day dawned.

Police dispatchers got multiple calls about a power pole and line down and blocking the highway between 64th and 66th avenues, department spokeswoman Amanda Brimanis said. Officers found at least three poles down, Brimanis said. The cause wasn’t immediately known, she said.

Chugach Electric crews were sent to a report of downed wires near 64th Avenue around 6:45 a.m., the company wrote online. More than 1,400 customers near Dowling Road were left without power and another 1,600 were without power near Spenard for roughly an hour early Tuesday.

It wasn’t immediately clear what caused the poles to topple.

Julie Hasquet, a spokeswoman for Chugach Electric, said crews isolated the area where poles and lines were down and restored power to a nearby substation, which restored electriciy to nearby homes and businesses that experienced outages.

The road reopened just after 3:30 p.m., said Shelly Wozniak, a spokeswoman for the Anchorage Police Department.

Strong winds moved into Anchorage early Tuesday.

The National Weather Service issued a high wind warning for Anchorage early Tuesday until noon. East to southwest winds of 30 to 50 mph were forecast with gusts up to 75 mph, the warning said. Gusts could be stronger in Upper Potter Valley and Bear Valley, it said.

Winds began picking up around 1 a.m., and within a few hours a 71 mph gust was reported in Portage, a 60 mph gust was recorded near Bird Point and a gust of 54 mph was recorded in Rabbit Creek, said Tracen Knopp, a meteorologist with the weather service. Just after noon, gusts at 59 mph were reported at Potter Ridge, 53 mph at Glen Alps and 43 mph on O’Malley, meteorologist Michael Kutz said.

Portions of the Kenai Peninsula saw snow and winds, including Turnagain Pass.