Police chief to speak on wind storm response

COEUR d'ALENE — Coeur d'Alene Police Chief Lee White is scheduled to address the city council Tuesday night, providing a full account of the damaging, historic wind storm last month and the city's response to it.

The presentation is being made at the request of the council and top city staff, and will include lessons learned and actions to be taken in preparation for the next event, said Det. Jared Reneau, a police department spokesman. The chief also will be discussing how the city can work better — and more cooperatively — with Kootenai County's emergency management officials, Reneau said.

"We probably could have been out front with more communications," Mayor Steve Widmyer said Friday. "We could have given more updates on social media."

He said the city needs to find a way to communicate with all of its citizens during a major weather event like that. Because of the storm, power was lost, utility lines were down in streets, traffic was blocked, and trees were falling on homes and vehicles.

"Just to give them an idea of what's going on," the mayor said.

"I hope (the chief) gives us a summary of what happened, what we did well and what we can improve upon in the future," Councilman Dan Gookin said on Friday.

Last week, city officials ran an emergency operations center at the Coeur d'Alene Police Department during the second wind storm this winter, which ended up being a dud compared with the first one. The center had a representative from the county on hand to coordinate efforts.

The operations center had fire and police department personnel and they were coordinating with the city's street department personnel.

"That looked really good, and it looked like they really had their act together as far as delivering services," Gookin said. "But there were some things that I think we can improve upon."

The council meeting starts at 6 p.m. Tuesday in the Coeur d'Alene Public Library community room.