High winds take out trees, down power lines, close roads in Spokane and North Idaho

High winds and gusts stronger than 45 mph took out trees, downed power lines and closed roads in Spokane and North Idaho on Saturday.

The Washington State Department of Transportation reported a downed tree blocking southbound Highway 2 near the north Spokane Costco roundabout at about 11:30 a.m. and crews cleared the blockage just before noon, according to a tweet from the department.

State Route 206 to Mount Spokane was closed around 1 p.m. in both directions near milepost 8, according to a tweet from the WSDOT.

WSDOT could not provide a detour while the road was closed until just after 3:30 p.m.

KHQ reported a downed tree fell on a home at Lucky Pines mobile home park in Post Falls.

The Bonner County Sheriff’s Department reported the west side of Wrenco Loop near Highway 2 was fully blocked due to downed trees and power lines around 2 p.m., according to an alert from the department.

At about 1:45 p.m. the sheriff’s department said Colburn Culver Road at Pinecone Road in Sandpoint was blocked due to downed power lines. The road reopened around 3:30 p.m.

Multiple trees were knocked down across East Best Avenue near Eighth Street in Coeur d’Alene after wind gusts as high as 50 mph hit the area. Some of the trees struck power lines.

More than 4,800 Avista customers were without power as of 3:15 p.m. Saturday, according to the utility’s power outage map. About 1,800 of those outages were in the Coeur d’Alene area.

About 1,000 Inland Power and Light customers in Spokane did not have power at 3:30 p.m. Saturday, according to an outage map.

The National Weather Service said the winds should bring seasonal temperatures back to the Inland Northwest.

Spokane should see high temperatures just below 40 degrees Sunday and Monday, according to NWS forecasts. The high on Saturday was about 55 degrees.