Gusts lead to local outages

After experiencing a windstorm that knocked down trees and briefly left about 10,000 homes in the dark early Saturday, the Inland Northwest will need to brace itself for even more heavy gusts.

Another winter storm with periods of snow and strong winds – gusts could reach 45 miles per hour – will likely move into the area today, according to the National Weather Service.

Saturday morning’s winds damaged lines and left thousands without power, but Avista crews were able to move trees, fix lines and restore power to all but 550 customers less than 12 hours later.

The most significant outage happened about 4 a.m. in Spokane Valley, where a large tree fell and knocked down a power line near the corner of Pines Road and Mansfield Avenue.

As a result, about 2,900 homes lost power, according to an Avista spokeswoman.

By 6 a.m., service was restored to more than half the customers. By early afternoon, nearly everyone else affected in the area had power once again.

In Idaho, about 1,850 homes were without power between Wolf Lodge and Harrison, but the problem was fixed by 2 p.m.

Avista expected to restore power to nearly everyone by midnight Saturday.

“We knew this storm was coming so we’re always prepared to send people out and restore power as quickly and as safely as possible,” said Avista spokeswoman Laurine Jue. “We’re always prepared for what Mother Nature is going to throw at us.”

The strong winds that blew into the region Friday night and early Saturday weren’t nearly as harsh as the gusts that raged through the area in mid-December. That windstorm resulted in a power outage that affected more than 50,000 Avista customers and thousands more served by other area utilities.

After the snow or rain tapers off today, strong gusty winds are expected to develop in the afternoon, according to the National Weather Service. Another storm will arrive on Tuesday, followed by a surge of much colder air from Canada for the later half of the week.