More than 1,600 Homer Electric Association members are still without power this morning after Wednesday night’s first major snowstorm of the year.
HEA line crews have been working around the clock since early Thursday morning when wet, heavy snow began knocking power out around the central peninsula area. At its worst point, more than 9,000 members were without power, but due to the swift work by the aforementioned line crews, many had their power back after brief outages.
Still, some members had to go without power for the majority of the day, and as of Friday morning approximately 2,400 have yet to see their power restored.
HEA made a Facebook post early this morning with a brief update. The update said, “Crews restored power to another 1,300 members overnight and continue efforts to restore power to the remaining 2,400 members that are still without power. Your patience is appreciated.”
The snowstorm had a prolific impact on peninsula activities and infrastructure. In addition to the power outages, the Seward Highway was closed for several hours from the Sterling Highway Y to Ingram Creek, KPBSD closed schools all day Thursday, and several peninsula high school athletic programs had to cancel planned trips to Anchorage or the Mat-Su Valley.