KMXT 100.1 FM Public Radio in Kodiak, Alaska
There’s good news for people living out the road who have been without electricity for more than a week.
Power was lost when high winds, estimated at more than 100 mph, snapped two poles hold the line a week ago Monday. Everything past the break in the line, including Middle Bay, Chiniak and Pasagshak went dark.
Kodiak Electric Association President and CEO, Darron Scott says the big helicopter necessary to lift the new poles up to the repair point arrived in Kodiak just before dark yesterday.
And he said the weather cleared enough earlier in the day to get workers up to prep the area.
“We have been able to get up to the site and get it all prepped, got the old poles out of the ground shored up the holes and we are ready to go for the pole insertions.”
Scott adds that crews were going to prepare the heavy-lifting helicopter yesterday after it arrived so that it would be ready to lift the poles to the work site. He outlined the work to be done.
“Assuming the weather holds to fly the two poles up there, and then the linemen can get those poles standing. And then start building a structure around that. And from that then after the structure’s built they can take the power lines and then rebuild that power line up on top of that pole.
“It’s still going to take a few days though to get it all done.”
The location, on the mountain about a mile in from the Chiniak Highway. has made repairs impossible without the use of the heavy-lifting helicopter, according to Scott.
