A broken utility pole and lines lay across Mitkof Highway just after Nine Mile on Dec. 1. Snow, ice, rain and wind caused the old pole to collapse. (Photo: Kevin Hess)

Severe weather conditions caused an 11-hour power outage for Petersburg residents living “out the road” on Sunday. Heavy snow, ice, wind and rain caused an older utility pole to break about nine miles south of town, bringing down overhead power lines and communication lines crossing Mitkof Highway.

Petersburg Borough Utility Director Karl Hagerman said, “Unfortunately it was a bad spot in the line, right where the line crosses the highway, so we had lines on the ground on the highway resulting in a road closure for many hours.”

The outage affected residents between approximately three and 17 miles south of town, from the Scow Bay Substation to Blind Slough. The highway was closed for several hours as crews battled sideways rain and cold temperatures to fix the outage while some residents waited without heat.

Hagerman said crews from Petersburg Municipal Power & Light, and telecommunication companies GCI and AP&T, worked until service was fully restored to customers at around 1:30 Monday morning. 

“I know, for Petersburg, that was a long outage, about 11 hours. But there wasn’t any way to do it any faster,” he said. “That was just a big job. Very, very complicated and involved pole replacement and getting those lines back up in the air.”

Hagerman thanked residents for their patience as line crews worked in rough conditions and acknowledged it was not an easy night for everyone.