Power restored after record winds in Eastern Washington

SPOKANE — Power was restored yesterday to thousands of Eastern Washington and northern Idaho homes that lost electricity when a windstorm packing record gusts blew down trees and fanned numerous small fires, including one in which a teenager died.

Tuesday night's windstorm left some 28,000 Avista Utilities customers without power. Electricity had been restored to all but about 6,000 customers by midday yesterday, said Avista spokeswoman Debbie Simock.

The winds, spawned by a pair of thunderstorms, gusted to a record 77 mph and blew down trees, caused power outages and fanned numerous brush fires.

Areas east of the city of Spokane were hit hardest, Simock said.

"There was extensive damage to the system," she said.

Northern Lights, which serves customers in northern Idaho, said thousands were affected by the wind, but power was restored to most early yesterday.

In Post Falls, Idaho, roof trusses were blown from a home under construction in the Montrose subdivision, where lumber and sheets of plywood also were flung through yards and across streets.

Northwest of Spokane, a wind-related power outage Tuesday night appeared to have been a factor in a fire that killed 14-year-old Dustin Barber at his family's home in the Suncrest area of southern Stevens County.

A preliminary investigation indicated the fire was sparked by a candle lit after the power outage darkened the house, said fire-prevention officer Russell Armstrong with the county's Fire District 1.

"The wind was blowing like mad," said Tom Peterson, who lives near the charred home. "It looks like the whole neighborhood was out here doing something."

Numerous brush fires were caused by lightning or downed power lines, but no major property damage from the flames was reported. The high winds also downed power lines, blew trees into houses and parked cars and tore the roofs off a Spokane Valley school gymnasium and buildings in Airway Heights.

A 77 mph gust at Spokane International Airport, the city's official weather site, broke a wind record, said Todd Lericos, a National Weather Service meteorologist. Records for various sites in Spokane date from the 1880s, and the previous record was 67 mph on Jan. 9, 1972.

The first set of wind blasts hit the city at 6:24 p.m. Tuesday with sustained winds of 62 mph, and the second began at 8:24 p.m. The highest gust recorded from the second storm was 61 mph south of Spokane.

Two commercial flights were held on the ground and two arriving planes were directed to remain in holding patterns until the severe weather cleared, airport spokesman Todd Woodard said.

Overall, airport operations were delayed for about 15 minutes and commercial traffic was back to normal by 6:30 p.m., Woodard said.

Lericos said the wind blasts originated in southeastern Washington when two thunderstorms moved off the Blue Mountains and into the rolling wheatlands of the Palouse, then collapsed, producing a long line of high winds that extended down to the surface from 10,000 feet as they moved toward Spokane.

"I don't think too many counties in Eastern Washington escaped" the wind, he said, adding that Whitman, Adams, Lincoln and parts of Stevens and Pend Oreille counties were affected.