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

Downed power poles in South Anchorage Tuesday morning closed the Old Seward Highway 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 poles and wires remained down around 8 a.m. and Hasquet said it would take several hours for crews to clean them up. Shelly Wozniak, a spokeswoman for the Anchorage Police Department, said the Old Seward Highway road closure is expected to last until about noon. The highway is shut down at Sylvan Road, with traffic being diverted onto 64th Avenue.

Strong winds were expected to move 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.

The winds were forecast to peak in intensity between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. and may move loose debris, damage property or cause power outages, the weather service said. Winds are expected to start easing by noon and move out of the area by 4 p.m., Knopp said.

There was a winter storm warning in place Tuesday for portions of the Kenai Peninsula. Heavy snow was expected to pair with strong winds, which could reduce visibility and make driving dangerous in the area. Snow was expected to fall at rates of 1 to 3 inches per hour in Turnagain Pass between 6 a.m. and noon, resulting in total accumulations of up to 15 inches, the weather service said. Up to 9 inches of snow was forecast for Summit Lake.

This is a developing story, check back for details.