After a few days of enduring hurricane force winds, the faculty and staff at the Palmer Center for Sustainable Living are breathing a sigh of relief. "It's peaceful and calm now; it's just snowing," said the center's administrator Norman Harris.
With the wind reaching speeds of 87.8 mph, damage was inevitable at the Matanuska Experiment Farm. A trailer (pictured above) that is used to transport a research blimp was overturned by the gusts, resulting in broken lights, and plastic was blown off the hoop houses. Those are easily repaired, Harris said, but an exhaust stack at the center's downtown Palmer office building was seriously damaged. No one was hurt throughout the ordeal. "We have other minor damage but we were lucky that there was nothing more major," Harris said. "It could have been much worse."
The wind picked up Sunday and lasted through Tuesday, with the nearly 90 mph gust blowing an anemometer, which measures wind speed, off the top of a tower.
Related reading:
Winds irritate, but cause little damage, The Frontiersman, Jan. 11, 2010, by Andrew Wellner
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