Weather

As residents venture outside this weekend to deal with the damage in their yards, experts advise caution with damaged trees and strangers offering their services to help. Craig Foss, a community forestry coordinator with the Idaho Department of Lands, and Karen Hinson, Coeur d'Alene's urban forester, offered these tips to tree owners: If a tree limb rests on a power line, don't mess with it. Hire a licensed tree service or contact the utility.

As tree branches snapped under the weight of a glossy coat of ice several times their own thickness Tuesday, complaints of downed power lines began to roll into Spokane Valley Fire. During the ice storm's 12 bitter hours Valley Fire received nearly 300 calls for help.

Cindy Lopez stood at the free-throw line sizing up the basket. She knocked down one shot, then another Thursday afternoon while her sons, Danny and Nate, counted the baskets. Her two daughters and a friend chased a basketball at the other end of the court at Sta-Fit Racquet and Athletic Club, 14210 E. Sprague. Like many Spokane Valley residents suffering through icy temperatures and an extended power outage, Lopez and her family welcomed the warmth and entertainment.

1. Volunteers from the Emergency Operation Center had to call Spokane Ambulance to help transport a woman from her freezing apartment. Photo by Liz Kishimoto/The Spokesman-Review 2. Jennifer Cauvin, 17, a Civil Air Patrol cadet, helps Howar Barrill with his belongings as he moves from his apartment to a shelter. 3. Civil Air Patrol members get ready to help after a snooze in the garage at the Emergency Service Center on West Gardner.

It'll be next spring before Millwood maintenance supervisor Cleve McCoul knows the fate of many of the lovely giants lining the town's streets. Millwood's maple, oak, linden, elm, and other large deciduous trees, some a century old, were badly damaged in Tuesday's ice storm. McCoul and maintenance worker Paul Allen were out on Dalton Avenue Thursday afternoon, clearing a tangle of oak branches that had been blocking both lanes of the street.

1. Workers clear snow from a boat slip roof at Foss Maritime Co. after a nearby shelter collapsed under the weight of snow and ice at Yacht Club Sales and Service on Lake Coeur d'Alene. Photo by Jesse Tinsley/The Spokesman-Review 2. East Side Highway District crews weave among the maze of downed power lines along Highway 97 near Carlin Bay. Photo by Craig Buck/The Spokesman-Review 3. Linda Osman, right, and daughter Jamie Royer, 14, play checkers to pass the time at the Red Cross shelter at the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Coeur d'Alene. Photo by Jesse Tinsley/The Spokesman-Review 4. The owners of this house on West Drive in Spokane search through the rubble early Friday morning after a fireplace fire spread and destroyed the home. Fire crews had to lay more than 1,500 feet of 5-inch hose to get to the home from the nearest hydrant. Photo by Christopher Anderson/The Spokesman-Review

1. Jennifer Perez, 16, a Civil Air Patrol cadet, radios back to the Emergency Operation Center as her crew transports people without power to the Convention Center. Photo by Liz Kishimoto/The Spokesman-Review 2. Spokane firefighters chop through the roof of a home on West 17th Avenue to get to a fire. It was the second house fire caused by a wood stove Friday. Photo by Christopher Anderson/The Spokesman-Review 3. A power line leading to Newman Lake is shattered and twisted after tree fell across it and knocked several poles down. Photo by Christopher Anderson/The Spokesman-Review 4. Marie Magnesun burned nealy three dozen candles in the days since the storm hit. On Friday, she and her husband, Albert, received two boxes of candles from relatives in Western Washington. Photo by Dan Pelle/The Spokesman-Review 5. The owners of this house on West Drive in Spokane search through the rubble early Friday morning after a fireplace fire spread and destroyed the home. Fire crews had to lay more than 1,500 feet of 5-inch hose to get to the home from the nearest hydrant. Photo by Christopher Anderson/The Spokesman-Review

Central Valley School District is, cross your fingers, ready to open its school doors on Monday. If the weather cooperates, that is. The last school building to get power back was University High School - Friday at 6:30 a.m.

While 30,000 homes throughout the Spokane area remained dark and cold Thursday night, two small Valley electric companies had restored warmth and light to all but a few hundred of their customers. Only about 1,800 of Vera Water and Power's 7,500 electric customers lost power during Tuesday's ice storm. By Thursday, general manager Kevin Wells said, Vera crews had restored power to all but about 500 of those customers.

The Newman Lake area was one of the Valley areas hardest hit by Tuesday's ice storm. All 1,000 homes in the area served by Inland Power and Light lost electricity during the storm and have been without power ever since.

Eight Red Cross shelters remain open. Those with space available: Spokane Convention Center

Coaches and athletes at Valley high schools were left skating on thin ice because of last Tuesday's storm. With schools closed, practices also were halted. The state requires a minimum number of practices athletes must complete to be eligible. Coaches have been forced to become resourceful or be resigned to their fate.

Spokane city and county officials are opening free tree debris drop-off spots, and will be accepting the material at the trash incinerator and waste transfer stations. City and county residents may take debris to the transfer stations in Colbert and on Sullivan Road in the Spokane Valley and the garbage incinerator on Geiger Boulevard.

1. Spencer 2. Hart 3. Bledsoe

1. Technological treasure hunt. Dave and Linda Brower keep the phone lines busy at Western States Electric on Friday. The two have spent all their time at the office calling all over the country for everything from transformers to galvanized bolts for power line repairs. Photo by Christopher Anderson/The Spokesman-Review 2. Transformers are a hot commodity at Western States Electric, a supply store that is scrambling to keep up with demand because of the ice storm.

1. Heavy with ice, the power lines along Evergreen Road shimmer in the sunlight. Photos by Steve Thompson/The Spokesman-Review 2. The sun shines through the icycles on a cold Winter Road sign near Park Road. Signs, power lines and trees bore the burden of rain that turned to ice during a storm Tuesday. 3. The neighborhood at 30th and Bowdish was covered with ice Wednesday morning. 4. A coating of ice covering the grass in this field south of Trent forced a horse to break through to find dinner. 5. The wind blew from the East and the freezing rain covered poplar trees along the interstate, pointing them to the West.

With a spotlight and the moon illuminating their work, WWP workers remove jumpers from a damaged pole on Summit Avenue on Friday so that when electricity does flow through the line, it won't also flow through a broken line on the ground. Photo by Sandra Bancroft-Billings/The Spokesman-Review

Utility officials are increasingly concerned about the improper use of home electricity generators, and the threat they pose to linemen. "It's a real safety issue," said Dave Clinton, assistant manager of Inland Power & Light Co.

Canadian crews that offered to help restore the Inland Northwest's power stayed north of the border while an estimated 75,000 people still shivered in their homes Friday. Washington Water Power Co., struggling to re-establish power after being hit by a brutal ice storm, announced Friday morning that crews from Alberta Power and BC Hydro were on their way to help.