Windstorm Whips Through Northwest Fallen Trees, Power Outages Reported As Spring Arrives

A storm fueled by 60 mph winds ripped through the Inland Northwest on Thursday, unearthing 100-foot trees, toppling power lines and flooding basements.

Ahh, spring is here.

“It was definitely the first sign of the new season,” said Jim Deberry, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service. “What a storm like that means this time of year is no more snow. Hello springtime.”

Deberry started tracking the storm from Grant County about 4 p.m. About 2 1/2 hours later, it raged through Spokane County, where the National Weather Service reported winds up to 70 mph in the Valley.

On Barker Road, the wind yanked up a pair of 100-foot spruce trees and knocked them to the ground, blocking traffic for two hours. Their snake-like roots sprung from the ground in Dave and Debbie Finney’s front yard.

“We just felt this enormous rush of pressure and then we heard them fall,” said Debbie Finney as she examined her torn-up yard under flood lights set up by county road crews. “We’re lucky they didn’t fall this way, on our house.”

A driver heading southbound on Barker tried to stop when the huge trees dropped in front of his car, but ended up rolling on top of the bigger tree’s trunk.

“He sort of got stuck and the (road crews) had to cut some branches away so he could get down,” Dave Finney said.

There were no injuries reported.

Earlier Thursday, gusts of more than 80 mph raked Western Washington. One motorist was fatally crushed by a falling tree in Whatcom County.

More than 100,000 people on the West Side lost power at the afternoon peak of the storm. Winds subsided by nightfall and utilities in most affected counties said power was restored to most customers by Thursday night.

Several hundred homes throughout Spokane were left overnight without electricity, Washington Water Power officials said. A main transmission line that services customers from Eighth and Fancher to Pullman was knocked out, WWP spokeswoman Lisa Hildebrand said.

“We had another transmission line out in Lewiston, too,” she said. “Our crews are working through the night. Everyone should have power again by the morning.”

City water and sewer crews were called to two North Side neighborhoods after residents reported finding water in their basements.

Workers described the flooding as minor, but bothersome, along the 9100 block of North Bradbury and the area around Driscoll Boulevard and Winston Drive. Flooding also was reported at Freya and Desmett.

In Coeur d’Alene, the wind storm whipped through quickly about 7:30 p.m., but persistent rain kept city and county crews on a flood alert all night.

By 8:30 p.m., the worst of the storm was well into British Columbia.

“It moved through here pretty fast,” said Deberry, who logged 43 mph winds at Spokane International Airport. “I’m glad it’s gone.”

But the rain will continue through the weekend, he said, with a 50 percent chance of showers today and Saturday. High temperatures for both days will hang in the mid- to high 50s, with lows in the 30s.