By Jenny Neyman

Photos courtesy of Homer Electric Association. An HEA crew works to repair a power line on South Miller Loop in Nikiski after a downed tree took out the line in a Nov. 2 storm.
Redoubt Reporter
Getting angry at the weather is an exercise in futility. Getting angry at the utility service for power outages caused by the weather is just about as productive.
Kenai Peninsula residents have had their patience tested on both accounts the last month and a half, as a series of winter storms have blown through Southcentral Alaska, dumping snow and rain, turning roads into rutted ice chutes with thawing and refreezing temperatures, and whipping up wind gusts clocked at 50 mph. The storms have clobbered the power grid, causing hundreds more outages among Homer Electric Association customers in November and so far this December than any of the five preceding years, with some outages affecting thousands of customers at a time, and some lasting a day or more.
The latest outages came with strong winds Sunday, with an outage Sunday morning affecting about 2,300 homes in Soldotna, and outages Sunday night affecting about 1,800 homes between Kenai and Soldotna, about 590 homes from the start of Kalifornsky Beach Road in Kasilof to the VIP subdivision in Kenai, and along Echo Lake Road.
“We’re doing pretty good as of right now, we’ve got everything taken care of,” said Joe Gallagher, HEA spokesman, on Monday. “It was a busy weekend.”
As frustrating as it may be to lose power repeatedly and for long stretches — especially in winter in Alaska when loss of electricity can also mean loss of heat and water — Gallagher said that HEA customers have been patient with the situation.
“These outages, as inconvenient as they are, people really are understanding about what’s going on. Even though we’ve had a number of outages, they’ve all been related to storms, and so while people’s power is out, they’re just looking out their front window and seeing the trees blowing back and forth,” Gallagher said. “On the public relations part of things, it has been actually kind of an eye-opener that people are really understanding about their power being out because they realize the conditions.”