Several Kenai Peninsula communities were hit by scattered power outages overnight Thursday due to high winds, with the Homer Electric Association saying at least 2,700 customers have been affected. According to a post at 7:15 a.m. Friday on HEA’s Facebook page, strong winds continue to buffet the area. While 2,777 members were reportedly affected as of 5:30 a.m., the later post says that number has fallen to about 600 in 30 outages. The association lists the following areas among those hardest hit by the outages:
· Mackey Lake area in Soldotna (93 members affected) · Anchor Point area around Griner Avenue (50 members affected) · Miracle Ave. off of K-Beach Road in the Poppywood Ave. area (24 members affected) · West Hill/Baycrest Hill in Homer (394 members affected) · Bay Ave. in Homer (27 members affected)
In previous Facebook posts, the association says outages affecting 77 members were first reported in Nikiski at 11:30 p.m. Thursday. A subsequent post at 1:30 a.m. indicated that parts of Homer were also affected. In an email to Channel 2, HEA spokesperson Joe Gallagher says that while it's not clear when power will be restored, crews are in the field working to do so.
"Estimated restoration times are difficult to determine at this time but we do expect that we will be working through the day on the restoration," Gallagher wrote. Anyone without power is asked to call HEA’s power outage hotline at 1-888-8OUTAGE.