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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883
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Tuesday’s wind storm left some Inland Northwest residents without power for a second day

“It’s nature’s woodwork,” remarked Forrest Rodgers, who lives at the residence with his wife, Sally Rodgers, where a tremendous pine fell on their property on the South Hill in Spokane and is seen on Wednesday. (Libby Kamrowski/The Spokesman-Review)
“It’s nature’s woodwork,” remarked Forrest Rodgers, who lives at the residence with his wife, Sally Rodgers, where a tremendous pine fell on their property on the South Hill in Spokane and is seen on Wednesday. (Libby Kamrowski/The Spokesman-Review)Buy a print of this photo
From staff reports

About 200 people still were without power Wednesday afternoon after a windstorm with gusts topping 60 mph blew through Spokane.

The storm, which started Tuesday afternoon and died down by about 8 p.m., caused outages to about 10,500 customers of Avista Utilities and Inland Power and Light.

Avista reported 214 customers without power about 12:45 p.m. Wednesday. About half the customers without power were on the South Hill.

Most of the other half were in Bonner County in Idaho.

That was down from 1,428 five hours earlier. Most of those out at the time were on the lower South Hill from Interstate 90 to 11th Avenue between Cedar and Cannon streets.

"It
“It’s nature’s woodwork,” remarked Forrest Rodgers, who lives at the residence with his wife, Sally Rodgers, where a tremendous pine fell on their property on the South Hill in Spokane and is seen on Oct. 14, 2020. The pine fell just before 5 p.m. last night and was responsible for a power outage that affected several blocks in the Cliff Cannon neighborhood, where power lines remained snarled in the felled tree’s branches the next morning. The tree did not injure anyone and fell on the Rodgers’ garage but did not take the structure down with it. “It’s 2020, you know, what else could happen?” Forrest Rodgers joked. “We’re just really fortunate that it didn’t damage any of the houses. It’s probably a blessing the tree was diseased, because if it weren’t, it probably wouldn’t have split the way it did.” (Libby Kamrowski/The Spokesman-Review)Buy a print of this photo

Inland Power reported only nine customers left to restore as of 12:45 p.m.

At its peak, between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m., meteorologists recorded wind gusts of 62 mph in Spokane, but the high wind warnings ended before 8 p.m., National Weather Service meteorologist Jon Fox said.

Saturday through Tuesday also brought the most rain Spokane has seen since May, Fox said. Over four days this week, Spokane has seen nearly an inch of rain, still less than what was recorded in May, Fox said.

Wednesday and Thursday were expected to be dry, although a light sprinkling of rain fell Wednesday. Friday will have a chance of light rain.

For the rest of the week, high temperatures are forecast in the high 50s and low 60s, with a chance of the first frost Wednesday night in the low 30s.

“So pick your tomatoes,” Fox said.

Next week will cool down. High temperatures will be in the 40s with lows well below freezing.