'I felt the house shake'

COEUR d’ALENE — Just before going to bed about 10 p.m. Friday, George Sayler looked out the window that offers a view of Lake Coeur d’Alene.

His attention, though, was on the two ponderosa pines that stood more than 100 feet tall and angled toward his home at 11th and Ash in the Sanders Beach neighborhood.

He had those trees thinned last summer, but with powerful winds in the forecast for Friday night and early Saturday, he was concerned.

“I think we’ll be OK,” he decided.

But a few hours later, about 1:15 a.m., he heard a crash and felt the room shudder.

“I looked up and I could see Sheetrock over my head,” he said.

A big branch was sticking through the ceiling and there was a large hole in the roof. Debris was scattered around the room.

“I knew what had happened right away,” said Sayler, a former state representative.

One of those pine trees had been pushed over by a gust coming off the lake. It crushed a section of fence and landed on the Saylers' home, smashing into the master bedroom on the second floor where George and his wife, Kathleen, were sleeping.

Both were OK.

There was no time to be scared, George said.

"It happened so fast, as soon as it hit, I knew, because I could feel the stuff on my head, and then it was quiet," he said. "I thought, 'We're OK.' It was just a matter of getting out of the house."

They spent the night with a neighbor.

“It’s heartbreaking because you know it's your home. It’s a mess,” he said. “But we were lucky, thankfully, didn’t get hurt. Good neighbors helped take care of us.”

Downed trees, fallen fences, along with blown debris were being cleaned up throughout the region following a wind storm that swept through the area Friday night and into Saturday morning.

Several trees went down at Coeur d'Alene City Park. A ponderosa pine crushed a drive-thru at the U.S. Bank on Seltice Way in Post Falls.

The storm’s gusts grew stronger after midnight. They were estimated at more than 50 mph and at one point knocked out power to more than 20,000 homes in the region.

As of 5:30 p.m. Saturday, 3,058 Avista electric customers were without power across 154 unique outage incidents, a press release said.

The height of the storm was at 3 a.m. Saturday.

“At that time, there were 252 incidents and 18,850 Avista electric customers without power," the release said.

Since 3 a.m., power had been restored to more than 15,000 customers, Avista said, adding that crews worked throughout the night

“Avista’s electric system was impacted primarily by trees and branches falling into lines,” according to a press release.

Avista anticipated that the majority of the customers who experienced outages as a result of the windstorm will be restored by 10 p.m. today.

"Avista is continuing to monitor the weather, as snow has begun to fall in certain areas in our service territory and this could impact restoration efforts," a release said. "It’s possible additional outages may occur as a result of the snow."

At 7:30 a.m. Saturday, there were 2,718 Kootenai Electric Cooperative members affected by power outages.

KEC crews worked throughout the night and as of 6 p.m. Saturday, KEC has 235 members remaining with power outages. Crews were working in the areas of Harrison, Upriver Drive, Cougar Gulch, Spirit Lake East, Athol, Stateline, Setters and Kidd Island.

Several trees on 11th Street, north of the Saylors, also went down.

"It must have been a wind shear coming down 11th Street," George said.

Courtney Perschau, who lives at 11th and Mountain, said she checked on her kids about midnight and all was well, other the menacing winds.

But about 1:15 a.m. she heard a crash and looked out the front window. The fir tree in their yard that was more than 100 feet tall came down, missing the home, but damaging the Tesla in the driveway.

“I felt the house shake,” Perschau said.

The family retreated to the basement for the night and the next morning neighbors arrived to help clean up and remove much of the tree.

“Best community ever,” Perschau said.

Mike and Amy Maykuth and daughter Allie live on 11th near Pine. Wary of the pending windstorm, they moved their vehicles to the parking lot of the Coeur d’Alene Public Library and walked home Friday night.

About 11:30 p.m., with the winds picking up, a nervous Amy suggested they sleep in the camper van at the library parking lot, which they did.

The next morning, a neighbor called.

“Are you guys OK?”

The Maykuths hurried home and saw two trees just south of their home, also estimated at more than 100 feet tall, had come down across their driveway, where the Toyota Tundra would have been parked. One tree clipped the front of their home, damaging the roof and porch.

The second falling tree sheared branches off a standing tree, which Mike believed may have kept it from hitting their home.

“Pretty minor damage overall in terms of the overall grand scheme of things of what could have happened,” Mike said.

Jacobson Tree Service was removing the trees Saturday afternoon.

The Maykuths plan to say in their home, as they still have electricity and can cordon off the damaged area until repairs are made.

Mike said the two trees have long been cause for worry.

“These trees have sort of been on everybody’s mind for quite a while,” he said. “I’m glad these things are out of here.”

Saturday afternoon, George watched and took photos as Bluebird Tree Care removed the tree from the roof of his home.

The Saylers have lived there since 1986 and those two ponderosa pines had always stood tall, acting as sentries.

Now, they plan to have the other one removed.

George said that, ironically, he had spent the past few days cleaning up pine needles in the yard and fixing parts of the fence.

“That’s the way it goes,” he said, laughing.

George added that when he surveyed those trees before going to sleep Friday, he should have made a different decision.

“We should have gone to the basement,” he said.