Windstorm gusts hit 70 mph south of Eagle River, cutting power to over 13,500 MEA members

A windstorm with gusts up to 70 mph swept across Anchorage and the Mat-Su early Friday, knocking out power to more than 13,500 Matanuska Electric Association members by 6:25 am.

The strongest gust hit a weather station 5 miles south of Eagle River at 5 am, according to preliminary National Weather Service reports. Stations near Eagle River and Abbott Loop measured 66 mph, a station south of Palmer hit 58 mph, and Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport logged 56 mph as late as 1:40 pm. Someone reported a large tree down in Northeast Anchorage, near Donna Drive and Peppertree Loop.

The early outages hit Eagle River, Birchwood and Chugiak, Big Lake, Willow, Wasilla and Butte, MEA said. Shortly after 9 am, a large transmission outage cut power to most of Eagle River, more than 7,500 members at one point.

By 11:55 am, just over 4,800 members were still without power. Crews worked the biggest outages first to get the most people back at once, MEA said, but some repairs were more complicated and could take longer. The largest remaining outages included about 2,000 members on Birchwood Loop Road, about 600 near the Old Glenn Highway in Peters Creek and about 900 on Admiral and Citation roads.

MEA warned people to stay away from downed power lines and assume they're live.

The weather service had warned of gusts up to 75 mph on the Anchorage and Eagle River hillsides, then downgraded to a wind advisory Friday morning.

The storm brought even stronger gusts to the Interior. A station 16 miles northeast of Paxson recorded an 84 mph gust at noon Friday, and one 3 miles north of Fort Greely hit 83 mph, the weather service in Fairbanks reported.