Most of Southeast Alaska avoided hurricane-force winds Friday but 70-mile-an-hour gusts were recorded at Southern Admiralty Island. Sitka missed the worst of the storm as it passed south of the town.
Bud Durdle lives in Port Alexander, a remote fishing village on the southern tip of Baranof Island.
“No damage here yet that I have heard of, and usually I hear because people want me to fix it,” Durdle said. “I don’t think we’ve lost any trees yet. They’re used to it, you know? I mean, this is unusual but not that unusual.”
He said wind started to build around 10:00 a.m. and blew upwards of 40 knots by 3:00 p.m. The bay his house looks out on was “solid white” with whitecaps. Durdle said he’s the city’s “maintenance guy” but so far, the storm hasn’t created any new work for him.
Further to the south, on the western side of Prince of Wales Island, in Klawock, the city’s water treatment plant was hit by lightning. A representative of the city of about 700 people said it knocked out the plant’s automated system, and they’re manually adjusting and backwashing the water. The city is working to resolve the issue with Anchorage-based Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium.
Just south in Craig, an employee at city hall said it’s been very windy but hasn’t noticed any damaged buildings or downed trees. About an hour south, in Hydaburg, a city employee said most of the heavy winds were seen Thursday night.
Around noon, the weather service forecasted gusts up to 90 knots in Port Protection, but it didn’t materialize.
Ben Houdek lives in a cabin in Port Protection, a small community on the northern tip of Prince of Wales Island where big bodies of water converge by Sumner Straight. He said it’s a “notoriously bad weather spot” but this storm forecast was exceptionally bad. He and his neighbors braced for sustained winds forecasted up to 50 knots.
As of about 3 p.m. Houdeck hadn’t heard of any catastrophic damage in the community. And while so far, so good, he described a “quiet anxiety” for him and his neighbors, waiting and wondering if a gust would last long enough to knock down trees or cause a boat to break free.
He said the surge was building all day, with big gusts of wind every 10 minutes or so, and the tide coming up higher than it should be. Through the rain on his windows, he could see whitecaps all around in the bay, trees whipping around and boats pulling hard on their lines.
“It’s intense. It’s a disconcerting feeling when they pound,” Houdeck said. And it’s also kind of cool. I mean, it’s exciting, and it’s cool to sit, sip your coffee by the wood stove at the window and feel like you’re having an adventure just watching the wind blow and the waves crash but still on edge, sitting in your living room with your extra tufts on, ready to run outside and deal with whatever might come down in the storm.
He said, “hopefully we just get to watch the waves crash and then it dissipates, and call our neighbors and make sure everybody’s house is fine and there ya go.”
Houdek said it’s a little strange to have such an intense storm in September. And the National Weather Service in Juneau agrees, telling folks it’s not typical for this time of year. “This system is definitely not typical for this time of year or just in general for this area … this is a lot stronger than what we would typically see,” the service said in a noon update.
Around the same time, lightning struck about 10 miles from Wrangell Harbor, according to the Emergency Alert System. The broadcast message told all mariners to find safe harbor.
Harbor Master Steve Miller said it didn’t affect the town’s harbors, but he has staff watching the boats at the three harbors until 11 p.m. Friday. They’re looking for bad tie-up lines and vessels submerged low in the water, plus infrastructure in the ports and harbors. Though Wrangell experienced wind gusts nearing 50 mph, he said five miles out at Shoemaker Harbor, the wind barely blew.
“It’s kind of weird that it really blew here in town at our harbor,” Miller said. “But Shoemaker was a little blustery, but it wasn’t like the, you know, 40 plus mile an hour gusts were getting in town here.
There is a high wind warning in effect until 10 p.m. Friday for Wrangell and Petersburg, and 7 p.m. for communities on Baranof and Prince of Wales Islands.
Thunderstorms are expected Friday evening in Ketchikan, with the strongest winds hitting earlier in the day. Greg Karlik, Ketchikan’s assistant fire chief, urges people to stay indoors in the event of thunderstorms.
“You definitely want to be inside for that,” he said. “As far as your household items go, everything should be on surge protectors, if at all possible, or unplug them if for possible, if lightning strikes.”
The weather service suspects seas in the Gulf of Alaska reached 32 to 35 feet Friday, but they’re still collecting data from buoys in the region.
