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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

‘A lot of damage’


Roger Matheson of Grace Tree Service signals a crane operator to lift a large tree off Jamia Boggs' Coeur d'Alene home Saturday. Boggs had gone out to get the mail when the tree fell, smashing her bedroom. 
 (Jesse Tinsley / The Spokesman-Review)

Thousands of North Idaho residents Saturday remained without power as work crews removed downed trees and fixed electrical lines pounded hard by a powerful Friday evening storm.

Several people injured by falling trees or falling branches were taken to hospital emergency rooms Friday night. None was considered life-threatening, according to hospital reports.

The storm, with winds clocked between 60 and 70 mph, tore through Kootenai, Bonner and Boundary counties, leaving about 15,000 homes without power until early Saturday and emergency crews struggling to deal with calls and safety hazards.

“It was intense. It didn’t last long but it did a lot of damage,” said Avista spokesman Hugh Imhof.

The largest block of homes still without power Saturday were near Sagle, Priest Lake, Clark Fork and some rural areas of Bonner County, said Sgt. Bob Howard of the Bonner County’s Sheriff’s Office. Avista said about 2,700 customers remained without power going into Saturday night.

Spokane County had about 65 homes still without power late Saturday. Kootenai County had about 250 homes or offices without power Saturday evening.

The north Panhandle impact was worse due to two regional transmission lines for that area both going down during the storm. One is operated by Avista, the other by the Bonneville Power Administration.

Imhof said normally the utility could reroute power around the broken line. But with the second line, and many other power outages occurring, that option disappeared.

By 10 p.m. Friday, every home and business in Boundary County was without power, said Bob Graham, that county’s emergency services coordinator. About 60 percent of those homes and offices had power restored by 5 p.m. Saturday.

In Sandpoint, Bonner General Hospital had to rely on generators for five hours. The power interruptions forced staff to send two patients by ambulance to Kootenai Medical Center, said Nursing Supervisor Peggy Bunge.

Marcy Davidson, whose two-level home is right alongside the 12th fairway at Hayden Lake’s Avondale Golf Course, was seated in her living room, watching the sky turn gray Friday evening.

“I thought, ‘Oh nice, that will be refreshing.’ “

A short while later a sound like an explosion rocked her home as a 65-foot top section of a ponderosa pine landed on her roof.

Davidson wasn’t injured. “I thought it was the Second Coming. It came down so hard it popped all the screens off my window.”

Both that golf course and nearby Hayden Lake Country Club spent hours Saturday fixing fairways and clearing trees that had fallen onto their property.

By Saturday morning, the main highways blocked by fallen wires and trees had been cleared, said area law enforcement officials. Those included U.S. Highway 95, which was blocked north of Bonners Ferry and between Bonners Ferry and Sandpoint at different points Friday evening.

The power utilities used their work crews and hired contractors to tackle the job of moving fallen branches and getting power lines untangled.

North Idaho tree services worked 12-hour shifts, working a triage system.

Most urgent were the homes like Davidson’s with structural damage.

Next, crews went to homes with large branches or trees dangling overhead, said Tim Kastning, a supervisor with Hayden-based Grace Tree and Forestry.

Tim Ventress, the fire chief for Coolin and Priest Lake, said several campers reported trees or branches damaging vehicles. But no injuries among those along the lake were reported, he said.

“We were also fortunate that no one on the water was hurt or involved in an accident. That windstorm came in on us really fast,” said Ventress.

He said most businesses and homes along Priest Lake were operating with generators. The town of Coolin, however, had power restored.