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A National Weather Service meteorologist said Wednesday that the winter storm pummeling villages all over western parts of the state is comparable to a Category 3 hurricane.
The NWS's Jeff Osiensky made the comparison at a press conference held at the state's Emergency Operation Center, which has been activated since Monday to deal with the storm.
John Madden, the director of the state Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, says officials are still assessing the damage situation in several coastal communities. In particular, they're looking to ensure people have access to five critical things: food, water, energy, medicine and shelter.
"It's not over with yet, but we have no requests so far that have to do with the safety of life," Madden said. "There's no one that has reported where they're at imminent danger. Those are the requests that come from the community themselves."
Tomorrow, emergency response crews will be flying as far north as possible in a C-130 Hercules transport plane to assess the damage from above.
Contact Jason Lamb at jlamb@ktuu.com