Less than a week after Juneau got buried under nearly 30 inches of snow, a second storm is triggering school closures, clogging roads and running plow drivers ragged.
As the snow kept piling up in Juneau on Monday — 16 inches since Saturday night — Denise Koch, the city’s director of Engineering and Public Works, said keeping up is an all-hands-on-deck situation.
“CBJ streets crews are out doing everything they can. Our water utility is out doing everything they can to do things like try and keep fire hydrants clear,” she said.
The Juneau School District shifted to remote learning on Monday and City and Borough of Juneau offices were closed due to the snow.
Koch said the city is fully staffed with plow drivers and contracted help, and drivers have been working night and day. She said two city loaders are out of commission, but that’s been the only equipment hiccup so far.
Independent plow drivers have also been working long hours to clear private driveways and roads. Brian Clasmeyer said he’s been plowing his routes in the Valley twice a day.
With constant snow and fluctuating temperatures, he said it’s hard to keep up.
“When it’s been snowing for several hours and then the temperature changes, and now it’s 30 degrees and it’s starting to get wet. Then it’s really difficult to remove,” he said. “And then if it freezes the next night, especially if you have a berm, it’s almost impossible – you can break your plow.”
Debbie Driscoll with Alaska Electric Light and Power or AEL&P, said there had been no reported power outages as of Monday afternoon.
“We’re — knock on wood — not really seeing anything right now. It’s cold, so trees tend to stay in place when the ground is frozen,” she said.
Driscoll said that warming weather in the coming days could bring some outages.
Capital City Fire/Rescue Assistant Chief Sam Russell said the department had not had any reports of roof cave-ins as of Monday morning. Koch said how much weight a roof can handle depends on factors like pitch, age and location.
“People ask us questions about, you know, whether or not they should shovel their roofs. And it’s not, unfortunately, it’s not one-size-fits-all sort of answer,” she said.
The city does offer guidance on its website to help residents assess the potential for roofs to collapse.
Meanwhile, Juneau Harbormaster Matt Creswell said there have been no reports of boats sinking yet — but he strongly encouraged boat owners to go shovel their boats if they can get to the harbors safely.
“At this rate, the snow is going to keep coming, and it’s getting heavier and heavier,” he said. “And we’re starting to get really concerned.”
Last week at Aurora Harbor, three boats sank under the weight of the snow. Three more were saved just in time.
Capital Transit will run winter route detours until midnight. There is no service up Cordova Street to Cedar Park on Douglas Island, or on Franklin and 4th Street in Downtown Juneau.
Anna Canny contributed reporting to this article.
