Windstorm topples trees, knocks out power for thousands
The drive-through at the U.S. Bank on Seltice Way in Post Falls was crushed by a Ponderosa Pine taken down during the windstorm that came through Kootenai County Friday night and into Saturday morning. (BRIAN WALKER/Courtesy photo)
George Sayler sits on the downed tree that landed on his Sanders Beach neighborhood home during the windstorm that came through overnight Friday and Saturday morning. (BILL BULEY/Press)
Downed trees are being cleaned up throughout the region, and power is slowly being restored to thousands of North Idaho residents following the wind storm that swept through the area Friday night and into Saturday morning.
“The height of the storm was at 3 a.m. on Saturday morning,” said a news release from Avista. “At that time there were 252 incidents and 18,850 Avista electric customers without power. Since then, Avista crews have restored power to over 10,000 customers.”
There were roughly 8,284 Avista customers without power as of 9:30 Saturday morning, with the majority in the company’s Idaho service area. By 1 p.m., roughly 1,600 Avista customers in the Coeur d’Alene and Post Falls areas remained without power, according to the power company’s online outage map.
At 7:30 a.m. there were 2,718 Kootenai Electric Cooperative members affected by power outages.
“Crews worked through the night and restored power to more than 1,000 members,” said a KEC news release.
Areas affected by KEC outages include: Conklin Park, Plummer, Harrison, east side of Hayden Lake, Upriver Drive in Post Falls, Howard Road in Athol and Spirit Lake East.
By 1 p.m., the number of KEC members affected by outages had dropped to 862.
“We are working in the following areas: Athol, Coeur d’Alene (15th St/French Gulch, Cougar Gulch), Post Falls (16th Ave., Upriver Drive,West Riverview), Harrison and Plummer.
Due to the number of outages and damage, KEC did not provide estimated restoration times.
