Utilities Gain Ground In Power Battle 3,400 Kootenai Residents Continue To Make Do Without Electricity
Whether they liked it or not, many Inland Northwest residents returned to their pioneering roots as they faced yet another day Thursday without those modern amenities that make life so comfortable.
Some 3,400 Kootenai County residents and 33,000 Spokane County residents remained without electricity late Thursday.
Televisions and light bulbs stayed dark. Without heat, temperatures in some homes plummeted into the 40s. Telephones and toilets stopped working in some parts of Coeur d’Alene.
And by Thursday evening, snow began falling in earnest again.
With it came another barrage of car accidents. Trees continued to groan and snap under the increasing pressure. Washington Water Power Co. struggled to restore more power lines than it was losing.
The company did make some headway. By Thursday afternoon, it reported only 2,400 North Idaho customers without power. Kootenai Electric Cooperative reported another 1,000.
“We are gaining, but we have our eye on the weather,” said Catherine Parochetti, spokeswoman for Kootenai Electric.
The utility hoped to restore power to French Gulch and parts of Hauser Lake by this morning. However, the company expects Rockford Bay and the east side of Hayden Lake to remain without power through the weekend and possibly into next week, Parochetti said.
WWP expects to have 21 crews working in the Coeur d’Alene area by today. The 300 or so residents without electricity in the Blue Creek area, however, may have a lengthy wait. The company needs to do a “major rebuild” of the redistribution line in that region, said Rob Strenge, WWP spokesman.
“It makes you realize the convenience of electricity,” said Harry Reed, who has been without power since Tuesday at his home on Kidd Island Road. “Anything and everything you want to do takes electricity. It’s a good lesson to learn.”
Despite Mother Nature’s nasty attitude, North Idaho residents found one way or another to make do. Snowbanks turned into temporary refrigerators, board games replaced televisions.
“I just keep thinking the power is going to come on any minute,” said Steve Schenk, who remained in his cold Fernan home despite icy indoor temperatures.
He made it through Wednesday night with a layer of expeditionweight polar fleece, wool socks and six blankets.
“Against all reason, I keep punching buttons expecting something to come on,” he said with a laugh as he walked through his home Thursday.
With no hot water, Schenk came up with a scheme to get clean and get in shape, too. He’s been going to the gym for his showers.
“You get real ingenious when you have to,” Gayle Colaizzo said.
During another bombardment of snow and ice Thursday, she was preparing to cook some hot dogs and make some coffee - Old World-style.
Forget the microwave and the stove. With none of that precious luxury called electricity, it was back to basics.
Fire.
Colaizzo threw the hot dogs and a little water into a coffee can and shoved it all in the fireplace to cook. Same with the coffee.
“If this is like the good ol’ days, I don’t want any part of it,” she said.
She and her husband Carmen had come to Coeur d’Alene from Canada to stay with her 98-year-old grandfather in his Fernan Village home.
They all huddled in the basement around the fireplace. When it got too cold, she put sweaters on her three little poodles.
But without power, the family can not use its toilets. So, they pulled out a small portable toilet left from when Colaizzo’s mother was sick.
Colaizzo says it’s about the worst part of the whole ice storm. “But what else are we going to do?”
At first, Pam McCormick and her family tried staying warm in their Coeur d’Alene basement. They huddled around the wood stove, sleeping near it to keep warm.
Until Wednesday, that is, when sewage backed up into their safe haven.
McCormick’s neighbors, who had power, had been using their toilets. They didn’t realize there was no electricity to empty the sewage holding tank shared by a group of nearby homes. A smelly mess eked its way into at least two homes in McCormick’s neighborhood.
“The only warm place was downstairs, and it’s flooded, so where do you go?” McCormick asked as a team of plumbers attacked the problem Thursday.
Her family ended up at the Holiday Inn Express - booked up with others seeking a respite from the storm.
It wasn’t the only jampacked hotel. Templin’s Resort in Post Falls was booked Thursday night, with 125 of its 167 rooms filled with people fleeing the storm.
And about 95 percent of those 125 rooms were filled with Spokane residents, said Lois Wechsler, general manager.
So many Spokane area residents have no power that stores there are running low on many essentials for survival.
“My thought was: ‘This town is going to run out of everything,”’ said Spokane resident Cherie Beznaiguia as she and her son lounged by Templin’s indoor pool. “We figured the farther away we got, the better off we’d be.”
So, Beznaiguia packed up the family, her mother and their two dogs and headed to Post Falls.
“It’s really fun,” said Khalid, her 7-year-old son, as he tromped from the pool to the sauna and back.
Despite the luxuries, Beznaiguia didn’t share her son’s enthusiasm.
“Mom’s ready to go home.”
Back in Spokane, exhaustion and short-circuited nerves began to emerge Thursday among bone-chilled residents and people trying to help them.
“We’re wearing out our volunteer help,” said Joyce Cameron of the American Red Cross in a midafternoon plea for medical personnel. “We need people in the medical community to step forward.”
“We’re all tired,” admitted Lt. David Wiyrick of the Spokane County Sheriff’s Department.
The strain of going without showers, hot meals and restful sleep increases the likelihood of people sniping at family members, neighbors and co-workers.
“People get tired, fatigued,” said Jennifer Allen of Spokane Mental Health. “They feel like their resources drop some. Their ability to manage difficult situations drops.”
Officials also worried that frayed emotions would make fertile ground for domestic violence cases.
“People are trapped together,” said Spokane County Sheriff John Goldman. “They get on each other’s nerves. Domestic violence becomes an issue.”
One to 3 inches of snow were expected Thursday night, and temperatures were expected to drop into the 20s. Freezing rain remains in the forecast again today, but meteorologists say that should be the end to this deadly winter mix, at least for now.
Temperatures are supposed to break the freezing mark at 34 degrees this afternoon, and highs this weekend should be in the mid-30s both days with 20s at night.
“Saturday may turn out to be a relatively nice day,” said forecaster Paul Frisbie. “I think we are finally seeing good-riddance to this.”
A low pressure area over southern British Columbia has pushed cold air over Eastern Washington off and on since last weekend.
At the same time, moist mild air from the Southwest rose over the top of the ground-hugging cold, causing rain to glaze into ice that broke trees and power lines.
The weather this weekend is supposed to start flowing from the west, a distinct change from today.
But once cold air settles over Eastern Washington and North Idaho this time of year, it is slow to dissipate. As a result, temperatures won’t rebound quickly, and snow returns to the forecast Sunday night.
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
The following fields overflowed: BYLINE = Winda Benedetti Staff writer Staff writers Kristina Johnson and Mike Prager contributed to this report.