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High winds toppled trees in the Spokane and Coeur d’Alene area on Wednesday, cutting power to tens of thousands of people as meteorologists reported the second-highest gusts on record at Spokane International Airport .
The chaos also killed a woman in her 40s after a tree fell on her car at 27th Avenue and Post Street near Comstock Park, Spokane Fire Chief Brian Schaeffer said.
Another woman trapped by a fallen tree at her home on 63rd Avenue was rescued by firefighters from Spokane City and Spokane County, Fire District 8, Schaeffer posted on Twitter shortly after 6 a.m.
For households without electricity, the storm is expected to be a potential “multi-day event”, Avista Utilities chief operating officer David Howell said on Wednesday. As of Wednesday evening, Avista’s outage tally showed that about 51,000 households in the Spokane area still had no electricity.
The steady roar of the winds Wednesday morning was punctuated by loud banging and crashes on the southern hill of Spokane, littered with fallen trees and fallen power lines that have forced some residents to evacuate and businesses to close.
A massive pine tree was uprooted and fell on 28th Avenue near Division Street shortly before 7 a.m. A smell of natural gas lingered in the air, firefighters evacuated the entire block for about an hour, as the neighbors sheltered temporarily displaced residents. At around 8:30 a.m., most of the residents of the block were able to return home.
“No one was hurt,” said Bryce Thomas, a nearby resident. “It just fell on the road, and I guess it’s about as good as it could be.
Many trees that line Manito Boulevard just south of 29th Avenue have been uprooted from the ground.
The one in front of Regeena Fine’s house was uprooted and flared onto the lawn, but spared his house – and the small free library across the street. She had hoped to send her children to school, where it would be safer, but learned that the school was canceled.
Despite the tree that had fallen in their lawn, neighbors Pat and Sue Dalton agreed it was less serious than the windstorm of 2015, but even worse than expected.
“We were really lucky,” said Pat Dalton.
Schaeffer agreed that the storm was not as severe as that of 2015, although Wednesday’s storm caused “significant damage.”
“The overall system we have to mitigate emergencies exceeded its maximum at one point and many of those calls that were not of a priority nature were put in the queue to be handled when we could add resources. to the system, ”Schaeffer said.
Fire crews were taking care of everything from structurally damaged homes to people stuck in elevators, Schaeffer said.
For the more than 20,000 households without electricity in Coeur d’Alene, restoration could take longer than in Spokane after crews waited for the storm to end to check problem areas, Howell said.
On the southern hill, the status of power varied almost block by block.
Rocket Market on High Drive was forced to close early due to a power outage, but businesses not far south on 57th Avenue were operating continuously. The traffic lights at the corner of 37th Avenue and Grand Boulevard were off but still working in other parts of South Hill.
The strong winds are expected to last for at least 15 hours, Howell said. The storm’s peak, however, was between 4 a.m. and 7 a.m., according to the Spokane National Weather Service.
“The storm hit with the greatest fury as the morning ride began. Addressing safety concerns is the City’s top priority today; please use extreme caution, ”Mayor Nadine Woodward said in a statement.
An unofficial gust of 71 mph was recorded at Spokane International Airport, tying the second-highest record on record, which was documented during the fierce windstorm of November 2015. The all-time high is 77 mph during a thunderstorm in June 2015.
“We are seeing wind gusts ranging from 50 to 65 mph,” said Charlotte Dewey, a meteorologist with the Spokane National Weather Service.
Storm damage was also visible in the southern neighborhoods of Spokane Valley. The top of a tree appeared to have come off against the roof of McDonald Elementary School. Along University Road near East 22nd Avenue, a tree fell on top of a house, uprooting under the sidewalk and grabbing a utility pole on the way down.
A few blocks away, a tree blocked the road at East 21st Avenue right next to Dennis Rae’s house. The tree fell from the yard across the street Wednesday morning, missing Rae’s house by a few feet.
Rae, who has lived in this area since 1959, said falling trees in this neighborhood was common in such conditions.
“Pines usually have a pretty good taproot that goes down deep,” he says. “But as we’ve settled in 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 ground is wet and the wind blows like this, it can topple trees.
Rae, who “saw a fair amount of trees coming and going,” said he was a little concerned about others around his property.
“But you can’t predict what’s going to happen,” he said, “or where it’s going to happen.”
Recent heavy rains have loosened the soil in the Spokane area, making it easier to uproot trees, meteorologists said.
Temperatures will drop from recent above-average highs in the mid-1930s, closer to normal of 34 degrees for this time of year.
“It will be a little quieter for us,” Dewey said.
Public security officials asked people to stay home if they could. Park officials have asked citizens to stay away from parks until the winds have calmed down and debris can be cleared. Accommodation space was available for homeless people, according to the city.
The Washington State Patrol reported that trees were blocking several local freeways.
Avista said customers should be prepared for lengthy power outages, and reviews could take more than 24 hours.
Fallen or damaged power lines should be treated as active and left alone.
The 911 dispatch center was overrun in northern Idaho after receiving more than 400 calls reporting downed trees and other weather events, the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office said.
Power outages
Avista reported hundreds of blackouts and more than 70,000 customers without power around 8 a.m. An hour later, crews 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 without power in its coverage area by 9 a.m., including in Spokane, Lincoln, Bonner, Whitman and Stevens counties. Nearly half of Bonner County’s utility customers were without power on Wednesday.
Vera Water and Power, which serves parts of Spokane Valley, had about 2,500 customers without power at 7:30 am. With that tally of just 2,000 in the afternoon, Vera asked customers to prepare for an extended outage. which could last several days.
Spokane Valley’s Modern Electric Water Company had just under 4,000 outages around 7:30 a.m., with all but 10 restored by 4 p.m., chief executive Joe Morgan said.
The Kootenai Electric Co-op reported 4,900 without power at 9 a.m. Northern Lights Inc. in northern Idaho reported about 11,200 without power.
Closures and modifications
Spokane Public Schools, along with the Central Valley School District, Cheney School District and Medical Lake School District, announced the closure of the in-person school and virtual school on Wednesday morning. The Davenport School District has announced that it will continue online learning.
Later on Wednesday, SPS announced on Twitter that all face-to-face, distance learning, express child care, day camps and meal kits will be canceled on Thursday, due to widespread blackouts and many schools still without power.
Coeur d’Alene public schools were to be moved away on Wednesday, according to a press release from the neighborhood. Take-out meals at middle schools in Canfield, Lakes and Woodland have been canceled.
Eastern Washington University and North Idaho College have canceled classes, both in-person and online, while Whitworth University has delayed opening until noon. Most of the courses for the year did not start at Gonzaga University; however, law students continued their distance learning.
Meanwhile, the Spokane County District Court has been closed due to the weather.
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