Heavy snowfall and blowing winds toppled numerous trees across Dillingham and Aleknagik and led to the outages. According to Nushagak Cooperative, reliable power cannot be restored until the trees are clear.
Nushagak Cooperative line crews are working to restore electricity to Dillingham residents following power outages Monday. Crews started working on the outages at 1:00 a.m. Monday morning and took a short break that night.
A storm hit the region on Sunday with at least 15 inches of snowfall and winds up to 50 miles per hour. The warning transitioned to an advisory Monday as snow continued to fall.
The co-op says heavy snowfall over the weekend toppled numerous trees across Dillingham and Aleknagik and led to the outages. CEO Bob Himschoot says the line crews have battled to clear trees amid the storm.
“As the crews were working and the snow was continuing to accumulate, they would clear areas and then more trees would fall in areas that had already been cleared," he said. "Now that the snow is stopped, hopefully they can make some good gains and permanent corrections.”
According to the co-op, reliable power cannot be restored until all of those trees are cleared. The Bristol Bay Native Association Forestry Crew is helping to clear trees.
“We really appreciate Woodsy and his crew to get trees cleared," he said. "They’re working their way trying to get what we call ‘C-phase’ back up for the restoral in the Dillingham area and working down Lake Road towards Aleknagik.”
The crews are working between Black Spruce and Agulawok Road to cut down those trees. Once that is done, they’ll make their way to Aleknagik to work on damaged power lines.
About a quarter of the co-op’s system is down. That's 350 electrical meters in the co-op’s service area, which is around 25% of the 1,450 meters in the co-op’s system. There is currently no timetable for power to be restored. You can follow updates from Nushagak Cooperative on their Facebook page.
Another blizzard is forecast to hit the region late Wednesday, with up to 10 inches of snow and winds gusting up to 60 miles per hour.
Contact the author at tyler@kdlg.org or 907-842-2200
