{"id":355814,"date":"2025-12-18T09:54:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T09:54:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/355814\/"},"modified":"2025-12-18T09:54:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T09:54:09","slug":"thousands-still-without-power-after-record-breaking-windstorm-moves-through-spokane-region-knocking-out-power-to-thousands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/355814\/","title":{"rendered":"Thousands still without power after record-breaking windstorm moves through Spokane region, knocking out power to thousands"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Strong winds caused the death of a man near Coeur d\u2019Alene and left thousands without power throughout the Inland Northwest Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n

The man was killed by a tree that fell into his house where he was sleeping about 6 a.m. in the 100 block of Theis Lane in Fernan Village, the Kootenai County Sheriff\u2019s Office said in a news release. Others in the home were rescued and were not seriously injured.<\/p>\n

More than 50,000 electric customers still were without power Wednesday evening after the severe windstorm pushed through the Spokane area.<\/p>\n

The worst of the windstorm started around 4:30 a.m. in the Spokane area and had passed by about 7:30 a.m., said National Weather Service meteorologist Daniel Butler. Outages among utilities in the Inland Northwest spiked from about 1,000 at 4:30 a.m. to more than 100,000 about 8:15 a.m. Since then, power companies have made steady progress in restoring power.<\/p>\n

Avista CEO Heather Rosentrater said the majority of customers should have power fully restored by the end of day Friday as work crews continue assessing damage and crews clear debris and fix damaged equipment and power lines.<\/p>\n

Avista has dispatched 45 line crews, each consisting of four linemen. Another six contact line crews and 40 vegetation management crews are working their way through the region.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll available crews and resources are dedicated to assessing damage and restoring power,\u201d said Paul Good, Avista\u2019s director of operations. \u201cWe will share estimated restoration times as soon as assessments are complete. We appreciate our customers\u2019 patience and assure you we are working around the clock until everyone is restored.\u201d<\/p>\n

Avista is prioritizing restoring service to critical infrastructure such as transmission lines and substations, and facilities including hospitals.<\/p>\n

The company then works tops to bottom, making repairs along distribution feeder lines that serve a large number of customers before working all the way down to any remaining individual issues.<\/p>\n

Wind record topples<\/p>\n

Spokane International Airport measured a gust of 75 mph at 5:53 a.m., a new record high for a gust at the airport not associated with a thunderstorm. The previous record of 71 mph was recorded in 2021 and 2015. The strongest gust recorded at the airport, including thunderstorms, was 77 mph in 2005.<\/p>\n

Felts Field in east Spokane recorded a gust of 67 mph at 5:38 a.m.<\/p>\n

Spokane Fire spokesman Justin De Ruyter said the agency spent the morning responding to a number of calls all around the city, predominantly involving downed trees and power lines. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely got a little busy in the last hour, probably, but nothing catastrophic,\u201d De Ruyter said Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

De Ruyter said Spokane residents should use their best judgment in placing their first call to report a downed tree or power line. If the latter poses an imminent risk, call 911. Other power line issues, such as a tree leaning on a line, can be reported to Avista at (800) 227-9187. Trees blocking city roadways can be reported by dialing 311, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cCall if in doubt, but we don\u2019t want to overload our 911 services either, for something that\u2019s not really a hazard to the general population,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The city of Spokane reported trees blocking multiple streets on Wednesday morning. <\/p>\n

Power outages<\/p>\n

\u2022 39,500 Avista Utilities<\/a> customers as of 6 p.m. That is down from 77,400 at 7:55 a.m.<\/p>\n

\u2022 3,500 Inland Power<\/a> customers as of 6 p.m. That is down from 14,400 at 8:15 a.m. Inland\u2019s outages at its peak accounted for nearly 30% of utility\u2019s customers.<\/p>\n

\u2022 2,500 Northern Lights<\/a> customers in Bonner County, as well as 500 in Boundary County as of 6 p.m. That is down from 8,500 in Bonner County and 2,100 in Boundary County at 10 a.m. Well over half of the utility\u2019s customers were without power at the peak.<\/p>\n

\u2022 3,500 Kootenai Electric Cooperative<\/a> customers as of 6 p.m. That is down from 9,300 at 11:15 a.m.<\/p>\n

\u2022 500 Pend Oreille Public Utility District<\/a> customers as of 6 p.m. That is down from 2,500 at 9:30 a.m.<\/p>\n

\u2022 About 80 Vera Water and Power customers in Spokane Valley as of 1:30 p.m. The outage was caused by trees knocking over poles near state Highway 27 and 24th Avenue. That is down from about 180.<\/p>\n

Modern Electric Water Co. in Spokane Valley had no outages as of 1:30 p.m.<\/p>\n

Palouse hit hard<\/p>\n

Equipment at Lewiston and Moscow-Pullman airports picked up the highest wind gusts in the region, at 84 and 81 mph, respectively.<\/p>\n

Two semitrucks blew over on U.S. Highway 195 near Colton, the Washington State Patrol reported on social media.<\/p>\n

Trees are down on more than a dozen Pullman streets, and there are a number of downed power lines in the town, according to a post by the municipality on social media. Pullman officials are asking residents to use extreme caution if they come across a downed line, to call 911 and report the issue to Avista.<\/p>\n

\"FirstFirst responders work the scene after a semitruck blew over on Highway 95 just south of Moscow on Wednesday after a severe wind storm hit the region. (Iain Crimmins\/For The Spokesman-Review)<\/p>\n

The windstorm also knocked out two stoplights at the intersection of Spring and Main streets.<\/p>\n

What to expect Thursday<\/p>\n

While dangerous winds are past for now, it will remain breezy in the next few days, said Rachael Fewkes, weather service meteorologist.<\/p>\n

Rain and potentially snow are expected early Thursday in Spokane, but it likely will not accumulate much if at all. However, the forecast calls for heavy mountain snow on Thursday through midday Friday. Lookout Pass is expected to get nine inches through Friday morning, 7-9 inches is predicted for the peak of Mount Spokane and 4 to 6 inches at the base of Mount Spokane\u2019s ski area.<\/p>\n

Holiday travel could be treacherous.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely a time to be checking the pass reports,\u201d Fewkes said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Strong winds caused the death of a man near Coeur d\u2019Alene and left thousands without power throughout the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":355815,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4,450,451,3,452,453],"class_list":{"0":"post-355814","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-breaking-news","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-headlines","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-top-stories","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355814"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355814\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/355815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}