The Seward Highway has reopened Monday morning after a crash involving a semi truck near Portage, as warming weather is expected to bring slick roads and high winds to much of Southcentral Alaska.
According to an Anchorage police statement on the crash, officers responded at about 7:30 p.m. Sunday to a semi truck that had reportedly went into a ditch near Mile 83 of the highway.
"When they arrived on the scene, the semi-truck was submerged in a small lake, not a ditch," police wrote. "The driver of the semi-truck did not sustain any injuries."
Police said in a text alert at about 5 a.m. Monday that the Seward was closed at the crash site. According to the statement, the highway reopened at about 10:15 a.m. after a tow truck recovered the semi truck.
The Portage area will be under a special weather statement from the National Weather Service calling for freezing rain starting Monday afternoon. A high wind warning extending north to Anchorage from 3 p.m. Monday to 6 p.m. Tuesday calls for gusts up to 100 mph in Portage, with 85-mph gusts and sustained winds of 35 to 55 mph in other areas.
A winter weather advisory for Anchorage and the Matanuska Valley from noon Monday through 6 a.m. Tuesday calls for up to an inch of snow. Freezing rain was likely to fall in the area from Monday afternoon through Monday night, affecting the Monday-evening commute, as a series of storms enters the area.
“While temperatures may rise above freezing, surface temperatures are likely to remain below freezing due to recent cold weather,” meteorologists wrote in the statement. “Untreated and snow- covered roadways and other surfaces that remain below freezing are expected to become extremely slick.”
