Crews Work To Restore Power Many Still Without Electricity After Sudden Weekend Storm Downed Lines

This town needed its name Sunday.

Residents here needed hope that the power knocked out during the weekend’s sudden storm would kick back on soon.

And maybe this time, Mother Nature would lay off the dimmer switch for awhile.

“This has really been the year,” Marie Scheimeister sighed, while her husband and a neighbor fumbled with an uncooperative gas-powered generator.

First came last winter’s ice storm and its outages. Then, a few weeks ago, Scheimeister’s water ran dry for five days because of flooding problems. “And now this!” she said.

Repair crews worked non-stop throughout Saturday evening, and were preparing to pull another all-nighter Sunday. According to Washington Water Power, at least 2,000 homes and businesses in North Idaho went dark when 65 mph winds snapped trees and pulled down power lines. Another 3,000 customers were out in Eastern Washington on Saturday.

By Sunday evening, WWP reported that 1,700 customers in the Inland Northwest were still without electricity - about 500 in Bonner County, and 200 in the greater Coeur d’Alene area. Most lines should be fixed by sometime today, WWP spokeswoman Carol Snyder said.

In Spokane County, about 1,000 people in Chattaroy were without power Sunday night. Scattered outages also kept some neighborhoods dark around the Little Spokane River, Nine Mile Falls, the Spokane Valley and the South Hill.

Snyder said contract help from out of town, including a Canadian crew that was here during ice storm, was helping to restore power.

In Hope, windows were dark and freezers thawed. Just to the west, the Trestle Creek Inn saw its first food customers of the day - at about 1 p.m. The power was still out, but owner Delman McNutt fired up a generator so the place could open. Earlier, he had to turn hungry customers away - people who themselves were unplugged.

On Saturday, his parking lot was jammed with cars when a downed tree blocked Highway 200. On Sunday, utility trucks tooled loudly up and down the reopened roadway.

Although the squall was over, the weather was still schizophrenic - bright and beautiful one minute, dark and wet the next. The sky would open, sending fat drops of rain clattering down on repair crews. Water coursed through tire ruts in parts of Bonner County, turning roads into small streams.

And in some places, the casualties were tough to miss. Near the Beyond Hope campgrounds, a power line drooped just above the road between two bowed poles. Round tree chunks blocked the passage.

Away from the road, nature showed its calmer face. A thick, green field was full of small deer.

And then, another reminder of nature’s earlier tantrum - a tree teetering against the collapsed roof of a small house. A station wagon parked out front was smashed, too.

The scene was similar throughout the northern reaches of the Panhandle.

“It’s extensive,” a hurried Bonner County sheriff’s dispatcher said. “A lot of trees downed.”

Ditto in Boundary County. “They’ve been working throughout the night and day,” a sheriff’s dispatcher there said.

The National Weather Service has yet to confirm whether or not those were actually tornados tearing through the Inland Northwest on Saturday, as several witnesses reported. Meteorologist John Livingston said the weather service will talk to those witnesses today.

Meteorologists will also check blast patterns - if storm debris was scattered about in circles, a tornado seems more likely. If it’s in horizontal patterns, the damage was caused by normal, albeit fierce, winds.

There was no doubt, though, at the Rib Ranch in Athol. Firefighter Mike Sereno, bellying up to the counter, said twisters were spotted in both Athol and Rathdrum.

“It whipped things around here pretty good,” Sereno said. “It was black, hazy.”

Waitress Mary Coppock was still bewildered. “It came …” - she snapped her fingers loudly - “that fast! It had lightning through it and everything.”

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The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Ward Sanderson Staff writer Staff reporter Tracy Ellig contributed to this report.