Residents Light Up Restaurants’ Cash Registers Businesses That Stay Open Are Swamped With Flocks Of Customers

When hunger pangs hit roommates Cheryl Powell and Stacey Wood on Tuesday evening, they started dialing fast-food restaurants - first near their darkened home in the Valley, then on the South Hill.

They ended up driving to downtown Spokane, where Third Avenue’s fast-food row was clogged with cars waiting for parking spaces, turns at drive-up windows and a chance to fill gas tanks.

Powell and Wood first waited 20 minutes at Senor Froggy. But people in the car ahead of them were the last to get food before the cash register went on the blink and the drive-up window closed.

The pair eventually found equally long lines - but working registers - at Burger King.

Jane Allen, who lives on 37th Avenue near Ferris High School, lost power about 12:45 p.m. She drove along 29th Avenue and down Grand Boulevard in search of a restaurant, before also ending up at Burger King.

“This was the first area that had lights,” Allen said.

At the International House of Pancakes, 224 S. Lincoln, five extra employees weren’t enough to serve the waiting-list crowd. So, a couple of the restaurant’s regular customers donned aprons and cleared tables.

“This has been going on for hours,” said Nora Cole, restaurant crew chief.

Gas also was in demand. The clerk at the Conoco station, 1606 W. Third, was too busy to talk. Every pump was busy and the convenience store was packed with people buying beer, cigarettes and junk food.

“It’s just crazy,” said the clerk, sweating under the pressure.

Meanwhile, businesses in the areas darkened by the massive power outage struggled to stay open.

Rosauers and Safeway in Browne’s Addition lost power between 2 and 2:30 p.m. Generators kept the stores open until about 6 and 7 p.m. for people in search of flashlights, batteries and candles.

Tuesday afternoon, Linda Ooms sat in front of a mirror inside New Images hair salon at Division and County Homes Boulevard calmly getting her hair cut by candlelight. Outside, trees fell, traffic snarled and the business world came to a near standstill.

Still, stylist Nicole Smith trimmed Ooms’ wet locks in the dim light.

“It’s either get it done now or wait for two weeks or longer,” Ooms said. While getting a blow dry and walking out with a finished look would be impossible, Ooms was keeping to her schedule.

Stores at NorthTown Mall didn’t do as well when the lights went out at 2:30 p.m.

For about 15 minutes, the outage plunged the mall into darkness, except for the areas under skylights. Then emergency generators turned on some lights, but salespeople were locked out of their cash registers and stores remained in the dark.

“We just kind of groped around until we found our way out of the store,” said Paul Reeber, manager of Mark’s Hallmark.

While some people idled at the mall, others rushed to get snow tires.

In the Valley, customers at Big O Tires at 14090 E. Sprague were put on a waiting list six hours long.

“We won’t leave ‘til everyone’s done,” said one employee. The Valley business was one of the few stores that still had power.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Graphic: Freezing rain

The following fields overflowed: BYLINE = Brian Coddington Staff writer Staff writers John Craig, Jennifer Plunkett, Dan Hansen and Kelly McBride contributed to this report.