Weather

Giant steel structures divert avalanches away from transmission line towers while the Daisy Bell device is used to trigger small slides before they become big ones.

Freezing temperatures in Ketchikan brought the mercury down to single digits at night and in the 20s during the day in Ketchikan in early February. That’s thought to have caused a pipe to burst on the top floor of the Zeigler building at UAS.

As of late Saturday, there have been no slides in the Behrends Avenue Area. But, the weather is about to take a turn for the worse.

Debbie Driscoll from AEL&P said Juneau’s been hit by unusually bad storms and icing conditions since the fall, though she understands customers’ frustration.

City officials recommend that residents in the avalanche zone of the Behrends neighborhood in downtown Juneau evacuate their homes.

The Coast Guard’s water delivery helped relieve pressure on the town’s water system so they could get it back up and running.

General Manager Dave Scanlan said it was a freak of nature event that has not happened at Eaglecrest Ski Area in almost 40 years. Early last Thursday, chairs on the 4,700-foot long Ptarmigan Chairlift were swinging back and forth, pushed by high winds.

While temperatures of 40 below zero might send most of us to our couches, Creamer’s Field Migratory Waterfowl Refuge biologist Mark Ross grabbed his recorder and some water.

Ptarmigan Chairlift will be out of operation as ski area managers assess the damage and make repairs.

“It was just a classic cold weather situation, and we just had a broken pipe,” said Principal Nancy Peel.