Snowpocalypse

COEUR d’ALENE — Power companies worked overtime to restore power to thousands of North Idaho residents Wednesday as snowstorms continued dumping heavy wet snow, snapping trees and power lines throughout the region.

Meteorologist Randy Mann said Wednesday’s storm dumped another 4.4 inches of snow in Kootenai County. Combined with Monday’s storm, that put 17.2 inches on the ground since Monday, bringing the total snowfall this winter to 28.1 inches — with 27.5 of that falling in the past eight days.

“This one didn’t have the moisture content the last storm had,” Mann said, adding just three degrees made the difference between that storm dropping snow or rain. “Three degrees warmer and all of this would have been rain.”

Mann said to expect more snowfall today through Christmas. There will be a couple more storms early next week, he added, but after that the weather should begin to moderate and become much more mild.

That additional snow continued wreaking havoc Wednesday, downing trees and electrical infrastructure across Kootenai County.

Starting in the early morning hours, Post Falls Police sent an update on Facebook that around 5 a.m. there was a report of blue and red sparks lighting up the sky.

“Officers responded to discover that a tree had come in contact with power lines, taking down power to residents in the neighborhood,” the update said. “Avista was notified and they advised they would respond as soon as they could put a crew together.”

One of the most tragic events due to the weather was the death of an 82-year-old Post Falls man who was helping a neighbor plow on Wednesday.

“What an awful thing to happen to someone who was trying help out a neighbor,” said Chief Scot Haug, adding the PFPD chaplain was sent to the victim's home to console his family.

Activity continued throughout Wednesday with trees falling everywhere, prompting Idaho State Police to send out a press release warning drivers to avoid the Fourth of July Pass on Interstate 90 because trees were falling over the freeway.

One of those trees struck an automobile near milepost 32, injuring at least one person, but more information on that accident was not available at press time. By late afternoon, ISP was reporting several accidents on the pass after another tree fell on a westbound automobile at milepost 34 around 5 p.m.

It is unknown if that accident resulted in injuries.

“The Idaho State Police is advising that travel is very dangerous on Interstate 90 and State Hwy 3 in the 4th of July area,” the release said. “With the heavy amount of snow accumulations and more snow falling, trees are overloaded and falling onto roadways. We are requesting motorists in these areas to be aware of the these dangers and to not travel unless it is absolutely necessary.”

The power outages knocked out many traffic signals in Coeur d’Alene, prompting the Coeur d’Alene Police Department to post a warning on its Facebook page.

“Power outages are affecting traffic lights in the Coeur d'Alene and Hayden areas, causing them to function improperly,” the message said. “If you approach an intersection with lights that are not working normally, please treat it like an uncontrolled intersection, meaning that it becomes a 4-way stop."

The message went on to say vehicles to the right have the right of way.

“Proceed with caution through traffic cycles and be aware of your surroundings at all times to help minimize further incidents,” the message said.

Power companies were also scrambling Wednesday to restore power to thousands of people, mostly in Kootenai County, according to Avista spokeswoman Jessie Wuerst.

“I can tell you this. When we went into a briefing meeting at 4 p.m. we had 6,356 customers without power,” she said. “When I left the meeting we had about 2,900 customers without power.”

Wuerst said crews were able to restore a major transmission line, which was the last piece to restoring the backbone of Avista’s transmission system.

“The backbone is now intact,” she said, adding they are still having issues with power lines snapping and trees falling over power lines under the weight of the wet snow.

“The problem is the snow continues to build up on the power lines and trees.”

She said with more storms headed this way, Avista could “conceivably” run into more problems today. She said it will also become more dangerous for linemen and work crews.

“In some cases we’ve had to pull crews out of an area due to falling trees,” she said, adding crews are trying to remove snow from the limbs of trees near power lines, but many of them are leaning too much to be safe.

She said the linemen are getting fairly frustrated with that. The linemen will get one section of power lines restored and the next section will go out on them.

Wuerst said there is also a problem with customers assuming Avista knows their power is out.

“Customers are not calling in with their outages,” she said. “Contrary to popular belief, we don’t have some major control room where we can tell where the power went out. We rely on customers to call it in.”

She said there have been many cases where a crew will restore one section of power and another section goes out right behind them, but the crew doesn’t know about it because nobody called it in and they move to another job.

“Even if your power is going on again and off again, you need to call us and report it,” she said, adding the number to call is (800) 227-9187. “Those reports go into a dispatch and that’s how crews find out where the outages are.”

Wuerst said Avista is bringing in crews from all over its service area to help restore power to North Idaho and they are working around the clock to get things fixed.

“Our guys will definitely be working through Christmas even though that is a hardship on them and their families,” she said.

Kootenai Electric Cooperative crews will also be working around the clock and through Christmas Day to get their members’ power restored.

“It’s all hands on deck around here and we will not stop until all power is restored. With more contract crews than we had during November’s windstorm, all crews are working long days and nights,” said Melissa Newcomer in a KEC email update. “Many additional staff members will also work through Christmas to assist members and help our crews restore power.”

With more snow in the forecast, Newcomer said members need to be prepared for periodic outages as the trees and lines continue to accumulate snow. Members also need to be prepared for extended outages lasting through Christmas.

“We understand members are frustrated, but please know we are doing everything we can to restore your power as safely and quickly as possible,” she said.