Power lines, trees down; thousands without power after overnight windstorm

Power lines and trees are down across Spokane County as thousands lost power following an aggressive overnight windstorm.

Avista Utilities reported that nearly 61,000 customers lost power across counties in Eastern Washington and North Idaho. As of 11:15 a.m., outages declined to about 33,400, Avista’s outage map shows. 

Winds reached up to 68 mph in Spokane County while Kootenai County winds reached up to 64 mph , according to National Weather Service’s office on the West Plains.

“It’s about in-line with what we were expecting,” weather service meteorologist Steven Van Horn said. “We have had reports of tree damages and power outages across the region.”

Nearly 30% of Inland Power customers, about 4,000, saw their power go out in Lincoln County, the company’s outage map shows. Inland Power also shows about 7% of customers lost power in Spokane County and nearly all of their customers in Kootenai County.

Kootenai Electric Cooperative reported 8,500 customers without power about 7:30 a.m. Northern Lights Inc. reported 14,400 customers out about 8:15 a.m. Pend Oreille County Public Utility District reported 300 outages around 8 a.m.

All were weather and wind related, the map shows. Utility crews were out overnight and early Thursday morning to assess the damages and begin to repair lines that had fallen. They also were removing trees off power lines, according to Inland Power’s website.

The National Weather Service issued an Avalanche Warning for much of the mountainous portions of the Idaho Panhandle, including Wallace, Kellogg and Lookout Pass along Interstate 90, as well as most areas north of the Clark Fork and Pend Oreille rivers.

Spokane Community College and Spokane Falls Community College cancelled classes as a result of the storm.

Documentation of downed trees and power lines were posted across social media Wednesday night with some lines starting to fall after 11 p.m. The Spokane Fire Department received around 40 calls related to downed power lines overnight, department spokesperson Justin de Ruyter said. The Spokane Police Department estimated a total of 75 weather-related calls, including fire calls, according to department spokesperson Tricia Leming.

North Spokane, the South Hill, Mead and Spokane Valley were all reporting downed trees, Van Horn said.

A car and camper in Spokane Valley were also crushed by a tree overnight, KHQ reported. Nobody was injured.

No weather-related injuries have been reported as of 7 a.m. Thursday.

This story is developing