High Winds Knock Out Power

Washington Water Power crews were busy chasing power outages Saturday night as high winds whipped through the Spokane area.

A major outage was reported on the South Hill, said Carol Snyder, a WWP spokeswoman. Wind gusts snapped off a tree limb, sending it crashing down on a main line at a power substation in the late afternoon.

Crews had restored power to most of the houses in an area between Second and 30th avenues and Hatch Road and Southeast Boulevard by about 8 p.m., Snyder said.

The number of houses affected in that area was not available.

Smaller outages also were reported in Wilbur and Fruitland. Snyder said less than 50 homes were affected by those outages. , DataTimes