Alaska hockey team stranded in Texas after winter weather closes airports

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - A surge of arctic air across the plains and into the south is breaking low-temperature records and wreaking havoc on electrical grids. Millions of people in Texas alone have been without power and in the cold due to the storms. Among them, two hockey teams from Alaska that traveled to Austin for a tournament.

The Alaska All Stars and the Alaska Oilers were welcomed to Austin by a storm. Freezing rain Thursday caused trees to become iced over and break onto power lines, causing massive outages. The last day of games was canceled as businesses shut down and snow moved into the area.

Hockey mom Megan Tauschek Lierman took to Facebook Tuesday with an update after the team’s hotel was without power for nine hours.

Lierman posted, “Silver linings—our power just came back on, the kids have played a game against another team stuck here (shockingly the coaches found a rink with power!), we found coffee and now the boys are passing the puck on our frozen pool!”

According to Lierman, everything shut down, including gas stations, restaurants, grocery stores and airports. She said they are scheduled to return to Alaska on Thursday.

In the meantime, Lierman said the two stranded Alaska hockey teams found a hockey rink that’s still open and rented the ice and are scrimmaging each other.

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