Sitka gusts hit 76 mph as Southeast windstorm cuts power to most of Juneau

Wind gusted to 76 mph at the Sitka airport Tuesday, stronger than the advisories issued the night before had called for, and a power outage covered most of Juneau by early afternoon.

Monday evening advisories had called for gusts up to 50 mph in Sitka, Juneau and the Haines Borough and Klukwan, and up to 55 mph in Skagway. As stronger gusts arrived, the National Weather Service in Juneau upgraded Skagway to a high wind warning overnight, Sitka and Haines late Tuesday morning and then Juneau.

Skagway gusted to 62 mph overnight, the Juneau airport to 63 mph just before noon and Haines to 60 mph, according to weather service storm reports.

Alaska Electric Light & Power first reported an outage on the Mendenhall Peninsula and Engineers Cutoff a little after 9 am, after a tree took out a few spans of line. By 12:53 pm, it said an outage affected "a large majority of town," excluding downtown and Douglas, and crews were responding to multiple trees down. Later outages hit Lemon Creek, Fritz Cove and the road north from Lena Cove, including Tee Harbor and Amalga Harbor, the utility said on its outage page. It gave no customer count or restoration time.

The Juneau warning said high winds would "damage property and cause power outages." The weather service's storm reports, several drawn from Facebook posts, listed trees across Fritz Cove Road, Cohen Drive and North Douglas, a street light knocked down by a tree near the Alaska Club in the Mendenhall Valley and shingles blowing off a roof near the Governor's Mansion.

Several trees came down on Gustavus roads, and one fell on a car. A secondhand report from Pelican described trees down and "potentially damaged houses." A tree blocked both lanes of the Haines Highway near 8 Mile, about 8 miles from Haines, early Tuesday. In the afternoon, debris flows were reported at miles 20 and 23, near Klukwan. The one at mile 20 covered part of the road, but one lane stayed open. The storm reports did not mention injuries.

The weather service canceled a flood watch for Juneau and Gustavus Tuesday afternoon, saying flooding was no longer expected to pose a threat. Forecasters had warned the storm could push creeks there back toward flood stage, Alaska News reported Oct. 18.

Juneau's high wind warning is set to give way to a wind advisory from 5 pm to 10 pm, with gusts up to 45 mph. Sitka is under an advisory until 7 pm, with gusts easing to 40 mph, and Haines' warning runs until 7 pm. Skagway's warning runs until 10 pm, followed by an advisory until 10 am Wednesday. Winds and rain should diminish rapidly once a second front passes Tuesday evening, forecasters said.