Almost three thousand people in the Soldotna area lost power late Tuesday afternoon. That’s after a vehicle crashed into and knocked over a utility pole along the Sterling Highway near Mackey Lake Rd.
The outage impacted multiple traffic lights in Soldotna and was restored within about an hour. At around 3:30 p.m., Homer Electric Association said via social media that crews were responding to the scene.
HEA Spokesperson Keriann Baker said the cooperative’s grid automatically de-energizes when that type of disruption happens. That’s to minimize the safety risk to other people in the area while crews figure out what caused the disruption.
As of 4:30 p.m., HEA’s outage map showed only one customer without power, which Baker said is likely the impacted pole. Crews were still repairing the utility pole around 7:45 p.m.
