For Anchorage-area residents, it is -- as Yogi Berra once said -- Deja Vu all over again.
Tonight (Saturday) Anchorage is bracing for yet another major windstorm -- the second in just 12 days.
This storm, like the last, promises to bring 60 to 100 mile-an-hour winds to parts of the Hillside, and threatens our area with renewed blackouts.
Such storms are not uncommon in our area. But they are uncommon in September -- that's when leaves are still on the trees. That's not good, because with their leaves on, the trees feel the full force of the wind. That can bend branches over -- into power lines- - and cause blackouts.
This time Anchorage residents are trying to prepare in advance. Foot-traffic at the Midtown "Home Depot" store was up 10 percent over a normal Saturday. People were making a run on both flashlights and batteries. But, unfortunately, they couldn't make a run on power-generators. They were all sold out! The result of the last storm.
Home Depot hopes to get another shipment of generators in on Monday -- but it expects the new generators to be sold out very quickly.
In the meantime, all that most of us can do now is to sit and wait. As of 10 P.M. Saturday the winds had not yet picked-up on the Hillside. But there is the risk that -- as the morning wears on -- they will.
