Power outage leaves thousands in the dark on Christmas

December 27, 2010|by Jackie Bartz

A black-out forced thousands of Eagle River residents to spend Christmas in the glow of candles, not Christmas lights.

While some say it added a special holiday feel others are upset with the power company.

About 5,000 homes were affected by the power outage on Christmas day, and it lasted anywhere from two to eight hours.

Scott McMurren spent the holiday in Eagle River. "We had the dinner and all the goodies and houer'dourves on the table, at that point when we sat down, boom lights went out."

McMurren was having Christmas at a friends house, it ended up being an impromptu candlelit dinner.

"It was just dusky, just dusky so we went out and lit all the candles,and there were a lot that had never been lit before."

While some say it added to the holiday spirit, others are upset it left turkeys uncooked in the oven and guests inside in the cold.

Joe Griffith the General Manager for Matanuska Electric Association apologized.

"We're sorry. We didn't like it either. I was involved in it. As were an awful lot of my people trying to fix it. We do the best we can sometimes we don't get it as fast as we like this was one of those times."

MEA thinks heavy snow and frost likely pushed a tree into a power line. The company lost a transmission line at the Briggs substation on Fort Richardson.

Griffith says the company's repair truck couldn't get on base for almost an hour because the base needed to perform an inspection first.

Calls to Joint Base Elemendorf Richardson about the inspection were not returned. Griffith says he plans to speak with senior officials to prevent problems in the future.

"We're hopeful that we can keep the power on and we're sorry that it happens on Christmas day. But folks need to remember is that this electrical system is fragile. And it's run by mere mortals we do the best but sometimes we can't keep it on all the time."

Girdwood also experienced a power outage. The power went out at the resort and entire town about 3:30 Sunday afternoon.

Some power was restored that evening. The rest came back Monday morning about 3:30.

A spokesperson for Chugach Electric says a conductor was down and an insulator needed to be replaced.

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