Windstorm augers Bonner County
<p>The boathouse in the foreground was among the collection of boathouses in the background before Tuesday’s windstorm wrenched it loose and blew it to the back of Garfield Bay. (Photo by KEITH KINNAIRD)</p>
SANDPOINT — Bonner County is picking up the pieces from another destructive windstorm.
“We have a lot of power outages and a lot of trees down,” Bob Howard, director of Bonner County Emergency Management, said on Wednesday.
Avista Utilities reported that 1,820 of its 15,238 customers in Bonner County were affected by the storm. As of Wednesday, 221 outages remained.
Avista called the storm the most devastating in the utility's 126-year history. At the height of the storm, 180,000 Avista customers in the region were without power. The storm also knocked out 42 major transmission lines and 23 substations.
Due to the extent of the damage, crews from Pacific Power Gas & Electric in California, the Bonneville Power Administration and NV Energy in Reno, Nev., are joining the 35 Avista crews already in the field.
“Based on current assessments, Avista expects it could take at least three to five days to restore power to the majority of its customers,” the utility said in a news release.
As of Wednesday, 136,500 customers were without power.
Lake Pend Oreille's Garfield Bay took it on the chin again during the storm.
The bay was pummeled badly during a windstorm in 2014, further damaging a failing breakwater assembled from heavy machinery tires, steel cable and makeshift buoys. The Idaho Department of Lands put the former Garfield Shores marina on notice that it would have to develop a long-term breakwater solution because parts of it were breaking off and presenting navigation hazards.
But those efforts, which included grant funding and a local improvement taxing district, didn't come to fruition and the breakwater was removed earlier this year. The docks it protected were also removed.
The absence of the breakwater exposed a neighboring marina operated by a moorage association to the brunt of the storm. Four boathouses were torn away from their docks and blown into the back of the bay. Other boathouses, including one that had its roof blown off, were also damaged.
Several boats were reportedly pushed into the rocky shoreline during the storm. A network of docks owned by the Captn's Table also suffered damage.
The Garfield Shores marina building has been razed and Steve Klatt, Bonner County's director of Parks & Waterways, said a landowner plans to redevelop the facility. One plan proposes a breakwater and marina, while another involves condominiums and a dock.