Rehearsal for the annual holiday production wasn't the only cancellation due to this week's winter storm. Sarah Schabel, flight coordinator for Smokey Bay Air, said flights across Kachemak Bay have "been on and off because of the weather." Era Aviation's last flight of Tuesday evening was canceled due to heavy snowfall, according to Julie Davis, with Era in Homer.

Surprisingly, that was the only flight Era canceled, even though the Homer area was hit with winds beginning Saturday and peaking Sunday at 35 miles per hour, National Weather Service Meteorologist Sam Albanese told the Homer News from his office in Anchorage. Reports of snowfalls on Diamond Ridge Tuesday ranged from eight and a half inches between 10 a.m. and 9 p.m., according to Albanese, to more than two feet reported by other residents of the Diamond Ridge area.

Snow bowed powerlines and knocked over trees and branches, causing about 4,000 members to lose electrical service in much of the Homer Electric Association service area from Nikiski to Nanwalek.

"We had crews on both ends of the system working the night," said HEA spokesman Joe Gallagher.

On the lower peninsula, power went out starting about 7 p.m. Tuesday when a tree fell on a line on Skyline Drive. Few areas were spared as outages hit sections of downtown Homer, East Hill Road, Skyline Drive, West Hill Road, Diamond Ridge and areas near Anchor Point, including the Old Sterling Highway and the North Fork. About 1,000 customers lost power. Seldovia also lost power between Jakolof Bay Road to Seldovia and to Tutka Bay. An emergency generator provided power for Seldovia, Port Graham and Nanwalek.

Kachemak Emergency Services firefighters also responded at about 6:45 p.m. Tuesday to a transformer that blew and caught on fire on Diamond Ridge Road across from the Hickerson Memorial Cemetery. The fire was out when firefighters responded, said KES Assistant Chief Steve Boyle.

The storm started knocking out service on the north Kenai early Tuesday morning. Crews worked through the night restoring power, with most HEA members back online by 4:30 a.m. Wednesday. As of 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, about 300 members in the Old Sterling Highway and North Fork areas still did not have power, but were expected to have power later in the day.

Beginning at 4 a.m. Monday and continuing until 5 p.m. each day since then, city road crews have been hard at work trying to keep up with the snowfall, according to Jan Jonker, superintendent for the Homer Department of Public Works.

"Our priorities are to make sure all of the school bus routes are taken care of, plowed and sanded, and the route to the hospital, Bartlett and Main streets," said Jonker.

The city's crew includes three graders one working east of town, one in town and one west of town and two sanders. Contractors provide snow removal for the parking lots at city hall, the fire and police departments, the Homer Public Library and the Pratt Museum.

State crews have been tackling the state-owned streets in the Homer area, including the bypass, Lake Street, Homer Spit Road, East End Road, East Hill, West Hill, Diamond Ridge and Skyline Drive, as well as the Sterling Highway, Old Sterling Highway and North Fork Road. A Homer-based crew focuses on the southern Kenai Peninsula, from Anchor Point to the end of East Road, approximately 300 lane miles of road. The state also is responsible for maintaining the Homer runway. Like the city, state road crews begin their days at 4 a.m.

"We've been hit pretty hard all the way across the peninsula, starting with the storm we had last week where an avalanche closed the Seward Highway," said Carl High, Kenai Peninsula maintenance and operations supervisor for the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities. "As bad as its been in Homer, it's worse (in Seward). The night before the avalanche, they had between 24-40 inches of snow."

In terms of priorities, High said, "Our objective always is to get out and at least punch the roads ahead of school buses and morning commuter traffic."

On the southern peninsula, Ninilchik School was the only school to experience a delayed start this week, unlike some central peninsula schools that had a two-hour delay Tuesday morning. By Wednesday, things were back to normal in Ninilchik, according to Principal Terry Martin.

Out East End Road, Pete Swanson, principal at McNeil Canyon Elementary School, reported clearing 10 inches of snow off the sidewalk. Students, however, were enjoying the snowfall.

"The kids are having a blast getting out in the snow," Swanson said Wednesday morning. "We had a little mess in the parking lot that got a few cars sideways, but that didn't affect the school day."

School buses also had few problems this week.

"We had some buses running a couple routes that had to use chains, but other than that, for the most part we were on time," said Larry Fielding of First Student.

Homer Harbormaster Bryan Hawkins estimated a 2.5-inch snow accumulation at the harbor, but pointed out that it is wet, heavy snow.

"Boat owners should come out and check their boats," Hawkins said. "One of the problems with this snow and this transition when we have freeze-thaw, snow-ice, is that the scuppers fill up with heavy wet snow and freeze shut. If it turns to rain, then (boats) get in trouble really quick because the water has nowhere to go and takes boats down."

Young actors at the Nutcracker Ballet rehearsal on Tuesday made it home safely, Steward said.

At the nightly rehearsals, parents supervise each room of elementary and middle school actors. Tuesday night, the room parents rounded up kids, called other parents and made sure everyone had a safe ride home, Steward said. Nutcracker Ballet organizers didn't leave until all children had gotten rides.

"There's always someone in the theater until the last kid leaves," she said. "That's standard procedure."

Homer Police did not report any incidents associated with the storm, said Homer Police Department Lt. Randy Rosencrans.

"It went off pretty smoothly," he said.

Officers on duty Tuesday night and Wednesday morning had four-wheel-drive vehicles for patrol. The police station lost power, but emergency generators came on almost immediately, Rosencrans said.

The storm made responding to fire calls a challenge, Boyle of KES said, like a stack fire on Tuesday on Kay Court off of Diamond Ridge Road and near the Ruth Court KES station. The fire was out when firefighters arrived, but crews checked to make sure the fire had not spread.

KES has put chains on its truck in advance of possible calls, Boyle said.

"We're keeping on top of the list making sure we're ready to go," he said.

As inconvenient as the winds and snowfall have been, it is milder than what other areas of the state have experienced, according to Albanese.

"This was caused by a tremendous Bering Sea storm that produced basically hurricane force winds across the Aleutians and the Pribilofs, and blizzards in Unalaska and the Bristol Bay area," he said.

Residents in the Mat-Su Borough have reported snowfalls from 27-60 inches, Albanese said. Winds in Cordova have reached 81 miles per hours, in Whittier 90 miles per hour.

"I would say the Kenai Peninsula, at least the Cook Inlet side, is like the banana belt," said Albanese.

Weather for the rest of the week appears to be calming down. The National Weather Service is forecasting mostly sunny on Friday with winds 10-15 miles per hour, some snow Saturday, clearing Sunday through Tuesday with temperatures in the 20s and 30s.

As the Nutcracker Ballet prepared for the opening show at 3 p.m. Saturday, producers started rehearsal early at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday to make up for lost time. Steward said Tuesday's storm won't keep the ballet from opening.

"The show will go on. It always does," Steward said.

Michael Armstrong can be reached at michael.armstrong.@homernews.com and McKibben Jackinsky can be reached at mckibben.jackinsky.@homernews.com.