Strong winds knocked down trees in the Spokane and Coeur d’Alene region on Wednesday, wiping out energy for tens of thousands of people while meteorologists reported the second highest bursts recorded at Spokane International Airport.
The riot also killed a woman in her 40s after a tree fell in her car on 27th Avenue and Post Street, near Comstock Park, said Spokane fire chief Brian Schaeffer.
Another woman trapped by a fallen tree at her 63rd Avenue home was rescued by firefighters from Spokane City and Spokane County Fire District 8, Schaeffer posted on Twitter shortly after 6 am
For homes without power, the storm was expected to be a “multi-day event,” said Avista Utilities Director of Operations David Howell on Wednesday. As of Wednesday night, Avista’s interruption count showed that some 51,000 households in the Spokane area still lack electricity.
The constant roar of the winds on Wednesday morning was punctuated by loud crashes and falls on Spokane’s South Hill, filled with fallen trees and downed power lines that forced some residents to evacuate and businesses to close.
A huge pine tree was uprooted and fell on 28th Avenue near Division Street just before 7 am. With a lingering odor of natural gas in the air, firefighters evacuated the entire block for about an hour, while neighbors housed temporarily displaced residents. At around 8:30 am, most of the block’s residents were allowed to return to their homes.
“No one was hurt,” said neighboring resident Bryce Thomas. “It just hit the road, and I think it’s as good as it could be.”
Many of the trees that line Manito Boulevard, south of 29th Avenue, have been uprooted.
One in front of Regeena Fine’s house was uprooted and scattered across the lawn, but it spared her home – and the small free library in front of her. She hoped to send her children to school, where it would be safer, but found that the school was canceled.
Despite the tree that had fallen on its lawn, neighbors Pat and Sue Dalton agreed that it was less severe than the 2015 wind storm, but even worse than expected.
“We were really lucky,” said Pat Dalton.
Schaeffer agreed that the storm is not as bad as in 2015, although Wednesday’s storm did “a significant amount of damage”.
“The overall system we have for mitigating emergencies has exceeded its maximum by one point and many of the calls that were not naturally prioritized were placed in line to be answered when we could add resources to the system,” said Schaeffer.
Fire crews handled everything from structurally damaged houses to people trapped in elevators, Schaeffer said.
For the more than 20,000 homes without electricity in Coeur d’Alene, restoration may take longer than in Spokane, after teams waited for the storm to check problem areas, Howell said.
On South Hill, the status of power varied almost block by block.
The Rocket Market on High Drive was forced to close earlier due to a power outage, but businesses not far south on 57th Avenue were operating without interruption. Traffic lights at the corner of 37th Avenue and Grand Boulevard were off, but they still worked in some other parts of South Hill.
The strong winds are expected to last at least 3 pm, Howell said. The peak of the storm, however, was between 4 am and 7 am, according to the National Weather Service in Spokane.
“The storm hit with the greatest fury as soon as the morning commute was starting. Answering security questions is the city’s top priority today; please be extremely careful, ”said Mayor Nadine Woodward in a statement.
An unofficial 71 mph gust was recorded at Spokane International Airport, drawing the second largest on record, which was documented during the violent wind storm in November 2015. The historic maximum is 77 mph during a storm in June 2015 .
“We are seeing gusts of 50 to 65 mph,” said Charlotte Dewey, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Spokane.
The storm’s damage was also visible in neighborhoods south of the Spokane Valley. The top of a tree appeared to have broken against the roof of McDonald Elementary School. Along University Road near East 22nd Avenue, a tree fell on top of a house, tearing off the sidewalk and attaching itself to a power pole in the fall.
Blocks away, a tree blocked the road on East 21st Avenue, right next to Dennis Rae’s house. The tree fell on Wednesday morning from the yard across the street, missing Rae’s house by just a few feet.
Rae, who has lived in that area since 1959, said that falling trees in that neighborhood are common under these conditions.
“Pines generally have a very good master root that goes deep,” he said. “But as we go and people water (their lawns), the root system doesn’t have to go that deep to get the water, so it’s a shallower root. When the soil is damp and the wind is blowing like this, it can cut down trees. “
Rae, who “saw a lot of trees come and go,” said he was a little concerned about the others around his property.
“But you cannot predict what will happen,” he said, “or where it will happen.”
Recent heavy rains have loosened the soil in the Spokane area, making it easier to uproot the trees, meteorologists said.
Temperatures will drop from above-average highs recently for the mid-1930s, close to the normal 34 degrees for this time of year.
“It will be a little calmer for us,” said Dewey.
Public security authorities asked people to stay at home, if they could. Park officials asked citizens to stay out of the parks until the winds subsided and debris could be removed. The shelter space was available for those living on the streets, according to the city.
Washington State Patrol reported that trees were blocking several local highways.
Avista said customers should prepare for long power outages and assessments can take more than 24 hours.
Dropped or damaged power lines should be treated as active and left alone.
The dispatch center for 911 was raided in North Idaho after receiving more than 400 calls reporting felled trees and other weather events, said the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office.
Power outages
Avista reported hundreds of outages and more than 70,000 customers without power at around 8 am. Just an hour later, teams began to restore power and that number dropped to less than 68,000 customers without power.
Inland Power & Light reported that more than 16,500 of its customers were out of power in their coverage area at 9 am, including in Spokane, Lincoln, Bonner, Whitman and Stevens counties. Nearly half of the dealer’s Bonner County customers were without power on Wednesday.
Vera Water and Power, which serves parts of the Spokane Valley, had approximately 2,500 customers without power since 7:30 am. With that count dropping to 2,000 in the afternoon, Vera asked customers to prepare for an extended outage that could last for several days.
The Modern Electric Water Company in Spokane Valley had nearly 4,000 outages at around 7:30 am, with all but 10 being restored at 4 pm, said general manager Joe Morgan.
Kootenai Electric Cooperative reported 4,900 without power at 9:00 AM Northern Lights Inc. in North Idaho reported about 11,200 without power.
Closures and changes
The Spokane Public Schools, along with the Central Valley School District, the Cheney School District and the Medical Lake School District, announced the closure of in-person and virtual schools on Wednesday morning. The Davenport School District announced that it would continue with online learning.
Later on Wednesday, SPS announced on Twitter that everything in person, distance learning, Express day care, day camp and food kits will be canceled on Thursday due to widespread outages and many schools still without power.
Public schools in Coeur d’Alene were scheduled to be remote on Wednesday, according to a district press release. Ready-to-eat meals at Canfield, Lakes and Woodland high schools have been canceled.
Eastern Washington University and North Idaho College canceled classes, both face-to-face and online, while Whitworth University delayed opening until noon. Most classes of the year did not start at Gonzaga University; however, law students continued with distance learning.
Meanwhile, the Spokane County District Court has been closed due to the weather.