Falling trees damage four homes in Pelican during Tuesday's Southeast windstorm, VSPO says

Falling trees damaged four homes in Pelican on Tuesday and hit the corner of a fifth, according to a National Weather Service storm report.

Pelican's village public safety officer estimated that at least 30 trees came down in the community between 8 am and 12:40 pm, the report said. The weather service issued it Tuesday evening, correcting an earlier report that put the count at 20 trees and three damaged homes.

Neither report said how badly the homes were damaged or whether anyone was hurt.

Pelican, on the northwest coast of Chichagof Island, was under a high wind warning until 2 pm Tuesday, with southeast winds of 20 to 35 mph and gusts up to 60 mph expected. The warning said high winds would "damage property and cause power outages."

The first word from Pelican came in a weather service report logged for noon, relaying a secondhand call about trees down and "potentially damaged houses." Alaska News included it in an earlier story on the storm, which covered a 76 mph gust at the Sitka airport and a power outage across most of Juneau. Haines airport recorded a 60 mph gust, and in Gustavus, trees fell on roads, one on a car.

Debris flows reached the Haines Highway near Klukwan about 2:30 pm, at mile 20 and mile 23, according to a weather service report relaying a public account. "The slide at mile 20 went over part of the road, but one lane stayed open," the report said. Both mileposts fall within the highway's final reconstruction segment, where paving meant waits of up to 20 minutes in September. The state's 511 road information site listed no slide or closure there Tuesday evening.

In Juneau, a weather service report logged video of a tree falling across Cohen Drive, northwest of Auke Bay. Amalga Harbor lost power "due to a tree in the line on Amalga Harbor Road," Alaska Electric Light & Power said, before power was restored there.

Skagway's high wind warning ran until 10 pm Tuesday, followed by a wind advisory until 10 am Wednesday.