A winter storm last week brought extensive wet snow to the southern Kenai Peninsula, resulting in the closure of all public schools from Ninilchik south to Homer, Kachemak Bay Campus, the Homer Public Library and many businesses on Friday. Renee Krause, Homer city clerk, also confirmed that most Homer public offices were closed by 11 a.m. due loss of power.

Snowfall on Diamond Ridge was approximately 24 inches by Friday morning according to a comment from Kris Holderied, a local scientist with NOAA. Holderied noted that forecasters had a difficult time confirming definite information on snow volume because “there are few weather spotters in Homer and precipitation was probably below the height of what the Kenai radar can detect.”

The storm also brought an extensive power outage beginning around 9:20 a.m. Friday, affecting most of the city area of Homer, including South Peninsula Hospital facilities.

The hospital has two backup generators that failed to function when the outage began and the main hospital and campus properties were without power for approximately 90 minutes, according to a press release from Derotha Ferraro, director of public relations and marketing for the hospital. Homer Medical Center, located on Bartlett Street, did have a backup generator available and the hospital set up an Incident Command Center from that facility. The Emergency Operations Plan was activated within minutes of the power failure, Ferraro said in an email. A Tuesday press release stated that “electricity was restored at approximately 10:45 a.m. and most systems were fully functioning by 11:30 a.m.”

The hospital’s emergency room worked with Emergency Medical Services to divert patients as needed; one patient was diverted and treated at Central Peninsula instead of South Peninsula, Ferarro said. All scheduled appointments were immediately canceled or postponed with most clinics and services operating on a limited basis, she said.

She also noted that the volume of patients seeking care Friday morning was low, as many patients had already canceled appointments due to the weather and road conditions. The City of Homer and its emergency services crew made public advisory posts through websites such as Facebook urging people to stay off the road as much as possible in order for crews to clear trees and debris.

South Peninsula Hospital does have two backup generators but neither of these was functional Friday morning. On Saturday, the generators were tested and were back in service. Ferraro said the hospital on Saturday ran on generator power to confirm that the backups worked. As of Tuesday morning, there was not a confirmed reason for the generator failure.

Ferraro noted that the hospital conducted a hazard and safety workshop in November so many of the procedures followed during this event had recently been practiced during the workshop. Ferraro said that despite the generator failure most equipment and lighting can run off of battery power for up to 20 hours.

“Patient, resident and staff safety is the number one priority for every decision we make,” Ferraro said.

Staff held a debriefing meeting in a conference room at South Peninsula Hospital on Monday. As of Tuesday morning, there was no additional information available.

Holderied noted that the weather event indicates a need for additional and improved storm reporting.

City of Homer Public Works employee Andrew Williamson plows city roads during the snow storm that occurred on Friday, Dec. 13, 2024, in Homer, Alaska. Photo courtesy of Mike Zelinski

City of Homer Public Works employee Andrew Williamson plows city roads during the snow storm that occurred on Friday, Dec. 13, 2024, in Homer, Alaska. Photo courtesy of Mike Zelinski