All schools in Anchorage and the Mat-Su Borough are closed Wednesday due to slick roads across the region, as snowfall continues. “This is the heaviest snowfall the Anchorage area has seen in over 20 years,” said state Department of Transportation spokesman Justin Shelby. “Our crews are keeping up as best they can.”
Mat-Su schools will be closed Tuesday due to a blizzard causing power outages and hazardous driving conditions.
A winter storm in Anchorage and Mat-Su, Alaska has caused closures of state offices, schools, and bus services, with reports of stranded vehicles and accidents, and up to a foot of snow expected in some areas.
Snow dumped on Southcentral Alaska this weekend, with more than 8 inches falling in the Anchorage area and about 5 inches in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough. A Climatologist says this weekend has led to a record amount of snowpack this late in the season.
Schools in Southcentral Alaska are closed due to a snowstorm and power outages, with the Seward Highway being deemed "impassable" and numerous vehicles stranded.
With Anchorage schools remote again due to a 17-inch snowfall and strong winds, another storm is hitting Southcentral Alaska, potentially causing power outages as trees fall on electric lines.
A drainage culvert beneath the street failed, causing the sinkhole.
Anchorage experiences unprecedented rainfall, leading to road closures and flood advisories due to overflowing creeks and waterlogged streets.
Anchorage and Mat-Su Borough schools and state offices are closed Thursday as a third major winter storm this month coated the area with snow overnight Wednesday. “In the past 11 days, we’ve had 41.1 inches of snow which is a lot for Anchorage,” Baines said.
There are over one hundred and forty landslides along the Denali Park road, the 92 mile road through Denali National Park and Preserve. None are more threatening than the Pretty Rocks Landslide at Polychrome Pass.
Officials say the floodwaters are swamping Alaska towns, tearing buildings from foundations, seeping into homes and covering roads. In Glennallen, the local utility is setting up Porta-Potties around the community, and area residents are asked to limit water usage. The state transportation department said there was water over a portion of the Glenn Highway on Monday, but the road remained open.
One reading on the Hillside clocked winds reaching 91 miles per hour. The day saw reports of property damage, road closures and downed power lines.LEO Note: According to Rick Thoman of NWS, these are unusually high winds for April.
During a community meeting, Chevak residents said better emergency planning should be a long-term priority. For now, though, assessing damage is the focus.
Two brothers, one dead and one experiencing hypothermia, were found about two miles from Pilot Station after their snowmachine became stuck in heavy snow during a storm.
The two men, who were both part of an active whaling crew, were in one of the boats on a towline, towing a whale to shore, when their boat flipped, according to fellow whalers who were there when it happened.
The cold and wet hunters built a fire to keep warm until Alaska Army National Guard rescuers arrived hours later.
Golden Valley Electric Association crews are still working to repair damage to power lines caused by warm chinook winds that blasted the Interior over the weekend, especially around Delta Junction.
Areas of the Southeast Alaska city “received between 3 and 7 inches of rain” in 24 hours over the weekend. The sodden ground caused mudslides in some areas, and wrecked roads and ditches around John Street and Peters Lane in Douglas.
Ketchikan officials say there’s “currently no danger of dam failure” but noted that a flood advisory is in place through Sunday.
Rockfall along the Seward Highway near Beluga Point has been happening since wind and rain battered the area earlier this week.
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