Windstorm wreaks havoc in community

BONNERS FERRY - Victoria Shelton and Aaron Vizcarra's wedding plans for early August hit a snag Thursday.

The 6 p.m. windstorm that ripped through Bonners Ferry packing 55 mph winds took out nearly 50, 100-foot tall pines on Shelton's parents property.

Many of those trees crashed to the ground, right where Shelton and Vizcarra plan to wed overlooking the Kootenai River.

“We've been working on this area since spring,” the bride's mother Pam Shelton said Friday. “We've been planting grass, limbing up the trees and had it pretty lush. We're more than just devastated. It's quite a sight.”

The Boundary County storm hit the hardest in the Three-Mile area north of Bonners Ferry and to the east of Three Mile, said chief sheriff's deputy Rich Stephens. No one was hurt, but more than 400 remained without electricity as of late Friday afternoon.

A building in the Three Mile area that houses the county road and bridge equipment collapsed.

Another building was reportedly damaged at the county landfill on the North Hill.

Jennifer Van Etten, who lives across the road from the landfill, found garbage all over her yard.

“We got all the lose garbage,” Van Etten said. “Now it's against our tree line and in our yard. It was like a tornado. You could see it (the garbage) come up over the trees and swirling around.”

Jim Unruh arrived to his 6537 Jefferson St. home in Bonners Ferry to find two, 80- to 100-foot Douglas firs had destroyed his 35-foot long travel trailer.

“I'm just glad it didn't hit the fort,” said Unruh, referring to a two-story play fort he'd built for his children.

The trees just missed his home, where Unruh's wife and four children sought safety in the basement.

Julie Cross was on the Internet at her parents' Moyie River Road home when a tree crashed through the living room roof.

“I heard this really loud noise and all of a sudden this tree slammed through. I was freaking out and I was screaming and crying,” Cross said. “It was really close. If it had come all the way through, it would've landed on me.”

Christine Patchen witnessed the wind take down a large pine tree at Eisenhower Street and Solomon Road in Bonners Ferry. The tree landed on some electrical lines.

“There was a lit bit of a fire started on the lawn,” Patchen said.

The storm sparked at least three wildfires, which resulting in closing portions of U.S. Highway 2 heading toward the Montana border, according to a news release from the National Weather Service in Spokane, Wash.

In Sandpoint, wind gusts were responsible for a bevy of damaged homes and business throughout the city, including the Sandpoint West Athletic Club. After incurring snow damage this winter, SWAC will once again be forced to repair its roof, which was peeled back and severely damaged by the heavy winds on Thursday.

In Kootenai Bay, the wind picked up a trampoline and sent it into the water, and downed trees were reported on Fourth and Larch and Fourth and Alder. Downed power lines caused traffic hazards on Ontario St. in Sandpoint and Peterson Road and Shoshone Drive in Priest River.

Staff writer Conor Christofferson contributed to this story.