Storm turns out the lights

SANDPOINT — Many Bonner County residents found themselves wondering who turned out the lights Friday afternoon.

The thunderstorm that tore its way through North Idaho at about 3 p.m. Friday left thousands without electricity, impacting businesses, traffic and recreation throughout the county. In the Sandpoint area alone, more than 5,800 people were without power at the peak of service outages, according to data from Avista Utilities. By 8 p.m., that number was reduced to just over 1,000 impacted customers.

Outages in Sandpoint were especially widespread due to several main lines that were knocked out by falling trees. Avista workers’ first priority was to restore those lines, the primary contributing factor in the sheer enormity of the outages. Once main lines started going back in business by early evening, the number of impacted homes dropped considerably.

Workers then turned their attention to damaged neighborhood lines across the county that impacted more localized areas.

“You have to restore those main lines before you can do anything else,” Avista spokesperson Jessie Wuerst said.

The outages presented problems for many local businesses. Coffelt Funeral Home representatives were reduced to personally delivering hand-written obituaries and death notices. Over at Second Avenue Pizza, employees raced to ensure they kept their dinner crowd fed. In addition, key public areas like City Hall had power cut off, too.

The lack of power impacted traffic, too, leaving a few traffic lights out of commission. According to Sandpoint Police Chief Mark Lockwood, drivers responded to the situation without causing any major traffic incidents. It was the natural obstacles that proved more problematic.

“We’ve had numerous trees come down across the city,” Lockwood said, later advising residents, “Slow down and make sure the road is clear, because there are a lot of limbs down.”

Aside from the tree issues, Lockwood also said there were reports of small-scale flooding throughout the region. Those expecting a quiet day on the lake saw the situation turn dangerous when fierce winds created huge waves.

The storm passed quickly over the region, but the damages left in its wake will take time to repair. Those who see a downed line of any kind should take care not to approach it and call Avista at 800-227-9187 to report any infrastructure damages or loss of electricity.

“Don’t assume we already know your power is still out,” Wuerst said.