Hurricane-force winds cause widespread damage in Alaska's largest city Thousands of residents across Alaska’s largest city were still without power Monday, a day after a powerful storm brought hurricane-force winds that downed power lines, damaged trees, forced more than a dozen planes to divert, and caused a pedestrian bridge over a highway to partially collapse.
A large low-pressure system in the Bering Sea brought the high winds, moisture and warmer than average temperatures — in the low 40s Fahrenheit (slightly over 4.4 degrees Celsius) — to Anchorage on Sunday, said National Weather Service meteorologist Tracen Knopp.
In Anchorage, Steven Wood and his family were watching the winds blow things around the yard after they finished breakfast Sunday morning when they saw their neighbor’s roof partially blow off and head right toward them.
The high winds are suspected of contributing to the partial collapse of a pedestrian walkway over the Seward Highway, a major thoroughfare and the only road leading south out of Anchorage.
Just north of the city, a 107-mph (172-kph) gust was recorded in Arctic Valley, and within the city a 75-mph (121-kph) gust was recorded.
