Wind storm destroys five RVs

COEUR d’ALENE — The Tamarack RV Resort on Government Way suffered tremendous damage, as last week's windstorm destroyed five RVs, leaving some homeless.

Tim and Charlee Morgan, along with their 7-year-old daughter, Alyssa, now consider themselves homeless again after a tree completely totalled the motor home in which they lived.

They did not have insurance, and Red Cross cannot help them, either.

For the time being, Charlee said, they have been staying at a motel and with some friends and family.

“We met with Red Cross (Monday) morning and they gave us $375, but that’s all they can do,” she said. “They don’t help people who live in motor homes.”

This isn’t the first time they have been homeless, Charlee said.

“We were homeless for two and a half years,” she said. “Then we bought this and our lives were just beginning to stabilize. Then this happened.

“Now we are back to square one.”

Charlee said the whole ordeal was surreal.

“I had just came out of the backroom with my daughter and someone knocked on the door,” she said, recalling when the tree hit the motor home. “As soon as I opened the door, crash — and the tree hit the back room. We would have been back there if it wasn’t for someone at the door.”

She said the tree toppled a power pole, which also hit their motor home, and ruptured a propane tank when it went down.

“When we looked at it the next day, we saw where the transformer charred the utility pole,” Charlee said, adding things could have been worse. “At least we are alive.”

Ron Inaugn, the groundskeeper at the RV park, said he has been working for a week to clean up all the trees.

“Let’s hope we don’t have another storm like this one anytime soon,” he said.

Inaugn said the trees annihilated five trailers and damaged several more.

Dondie Pierpont, assistant manager of the RV park, said branches knocked holes in her roof, and she was working to seal them before it starts to rain or snow.

Meanwhile, Avista crews continued to repair downed power lines Monday with a crew five times the size of a normal lineman crew. Approximately 29,000 customers remain without power, while nearly 84 percent of customers who lost power Nov. 17 have had their power restored.

There are 132 crews available to work on restoration. More than 100 crews are on duty today in Spokane, working 16-hour shifts. Their rotating schedule allows them to continue working around the clock.

“I know it’s difficult and stressful for our customers to be without power for this extended period,” said Avista CEO Scott Morris. “I want to assure you that we are making use of every available resource at our disposal to restore power as quickly and safely as possible.”

Avista employees — those without direct responsibilities for outage restoration — have joined other community volunteers going door-to-door, talking with residents and doing welfare checks on customers who may be elderly, incapacitated or otherwise vulnerable.

Kootenai Electric Cooperative had only 217 members without power as of Monday night, and anticipated having power restored to the remainder by this evening.

“Crews will work through the night in restoration efforts,” said Erika Neff, spokeswoman for KEC.

She said some members have asked why there are ‘pockets’ of members without power while others nearby have had their power restored.

“We understand this is frustrating, and the reason is some areas have had more severe damage and will take more time to restore,” she said. “We have not forgotten about any members and are restoring power in a systematic way.”

Neff said a limited number of members in the hardest-hit areas should have service restored no later than Wednesday evening.

“We appreciate member patience during this challenging time and will provide another update late (today),” she said.