100 years ago in the Inland Northwest: A monster storm ravaged the area, isolating entire towns

One of the region’s most severe wind, rain and snow storms caused Sandpoint, Bonners Ferry, Ione, Newport and Colville to be cut off from all communication.

Hundreds of telephone poles were down. In Sandpoint, “every line is broken,” a telephone company spokesman said. It would take days to restore service.

Wallace, Kellogg and Coeur d’Alene were also hit hard. A ferocious wind and heavy snow had uprooted hundreds of trees and damaged power lines all over the region. A total of 59 poles were down between Spokane and Coeur d’Alene alone.

The damage was spread throughout the Northwest. Three feet of snow fell in the Cascades. Everett was without power.

At the mouth of the Columbia River, a weather station reported a wind velocity of 84 mph. A mail plane went down in Puget Sound, and the pilot was feared lost.

From the pioneer beat: A reporter interviewed Nancy Patterson, 93, and found her to be more interesting and young at heart than any young “golden-haired flapper in the Inland Empire.”

She still loved to get out on a lake and fish. She was spry and healthy.

She had been through a lot of adventure in her 93 years. In 1862, she loaded up an ox-cart, bundled up her five kids and trekked in a wagon train from Illinois to Colorado, where her husband had taken up a homestead.

“We had no trouble with Indians, but I lost my baby with the croup before we even got out of the states,” she said. “It was in Missouri.”