Unalaska, AK – Yesterday brought some rough weather to Unalaska, and among the casualties were three shipping containers. At about 5pm on Tuesday, the containers blew from the Horizon Lines yard and into the lake near Strawberry Hill. The containers were empty, and a crew from Horizon Lines was working to recover them this morning.

Bruce McConnell is a manager with Horizon Lines, and he says that despite plenty of strong winds this winter, there haven't been many incidents like this so far this year. Two containers blew over a couple of weeks ago, but this is the largest number of containers Horizon has seen affected this season.

"We've had plenty of storms this year and obviously haven't had a bunch of containers blow over, especially into the lake," says McConnell. "It must have been something unique that hit just that particular way."

Horizon secures their containers by keeping them in low stacks, chaining them up, and putting loaded reefers in front of them to act as a wind break. McConnell says that because of the APL crane collapse last year, shipping companies have been extra vigilant in making sure that cargo and equipment can handle the island's storms. However, he adds that it's not possible to predict every potential weather-related hazard.

"If it blew the same direction all the time, it would be easy," says McConnell.