anchorage march13

[limey lad]

checkout www.adn.com for details of the damage done by winds in anc yesterday. winds were up to 90kts, tower was evacuated, airport closed for about 9 hours. many overnight pax flights out of anc back to mainland usa on the evening of march 12 were cancelled due winds exceeding x-wind limits on all rwys. lots of damage around anc, office windows smashed / roofs torn off buildings / power-outages. lots of damage around airport too, with many aircraft around lake hood damaged. at least the lake was frozen, so no water damage. lots of interesting old dc3's/dc6's/c46's and other unusual acft based here. not sure of any damage to them, but i am sure there must have been, which would be a great shame. anc airport closed until 9am local time march 13. mainly due to debris on airport surfaces. there were at least two aircraft wings from lake hood area found around the rwys, and i heard that a complete roof from a house was deposited on one of the rwy 24's. many flts ended up in fairbanks, which had the potential for turning into another bangor, maine on sept 11th, with freighters inbound from asia and continental usa for refuelling / recrewing. outbound crews all in anc with no way to get to fai. don't know how many ended up overnighting in fai due crew duty time issues / curfew issues in asia, etc, but i am sure it really stretched fai to the max, with refuelling from trucks and limited parking space. i bet everyone in anc, in fai, in the operations rooms of many airlines, and in the cockpits were really relieved when anc was able to reopen about 9am, when many of the freighters were coming up on decision time about whether to head to fai.