North Idaho deals with another big storm

Thunderstorms wreaked havoc across North Idaho on Saturday evening, knocking trees into power lines and leaving many communities without power.

"It was a really powerful storm," said Avista spokeswoman Debbie Simock. She said Avista crews, which are working around the clock, are mostly seeing downed trees and branches that are coming into contact with power lines and pulling them down. Lightning ignited grass fires and several transmission and distribution poles were also damaged in the nearly 70 mile-per-hour wind gusts.

"It's unprecedented for us to have two big storms occur in such a short amount of time," she said, adding that about 10,000 more customers lost service Saturday than during the storm July 23. As of 5 p.m. Sunday, 165 customers in Hayden and Rathdrum and five in Coeur d'Alene were without power.

"It's an 'all hands on deck' situation," she said. "We expect to have 90 percent of customers restored by (Monday) evening, but because of the extensive damage in some areas it may be Tuesday before some customers are returned to service."

The storm rolled in without warning, catching some boaters off guard. An incident within an incident occurred on Lake Pend Oreille as choppy waters stranded two boaters on rocks near Lakeview and the rescue boat itself also needed rescuing. Timberlake Fire Chief Kevin Kleinworth said when his crew headed out to the stranded boaters, their boat was pounded by huge waves.

"Suddenly three huge swells came and hit the back of the boat, 6 to 8-feet high, rendering the boat inoperable," he said. "The waves just kept pounding it and pounding it and pounding it."

He said the Timberlake Fire boat had to be secured on the beach because it was filled with water. A Kootenai County Sheriff's Office marine boat was sent out to take the civilian boaters to Bayview and then returned to where the fire boat was beached to transport the fire crew to safety.

"They really had a hard time getting back to us," Kleinworth said. "It's such a huge body of water, it's almost like an ocean."

He said it's very important people check the weather before going out in their boats.

"Just watch the skies, he said. "If you start to see signs of towering cumulus clouds, it's time to get off the water."

No one was injured in the boating rescues.

Hauser and Post Falls also received plenty of storm action. Hauser Lake Fire Protection District and Volunteer Fire Department Chief Larry Simms said a tree crashed onto a garage, basically destroying it.

"We had several several power lines down and several trees down in the roadway, but other than that, I think we survived," he said.

Post Falls resident Tom Stafford woke up at 5 Sunday morning to three fire trucks outside of his house and a fire blazing across the street. Luckily, he said, the fire crews acted fast to put it out.

"Apparently some fire got started on the roadside," he said. "It's a mystery to us all how it got started."

Kleinworth said he and his crews are busier than usual this year and they are seeing "holdovers" from the storm, small fires started by lightning that grow the next day with wind and the heat of the sun.

Art on the Green organizers were able to pack up and protect against the weather just as the rain began to pour. Judith Yancey of Coeur d'Alene was at the Downtown Street Fair at the time of the storm.

"The musicians were just plugging in their guitars and we heard a huge, loud bolt of thunder and lightning," she said. "People were running and scattering everywhere trying to get out of the rain, and thunderclouds and whatever was coming their way ... I saw people getting drenched and running for cover."

She said she heard of tents from the fair blowing up to Zip's Drive-in at Eighth Street and Sherman Avenue.

"It was quite a lighting show last night, that's for sure," she said.

For outage information in the Avista service area, visit www.avistautilities.com and click on "outage center."