Wind temporarily wipes out power

PEND OREILLE COUNTY — The Pend Oreille River Valley got a small sample of the extreme weather that’s been battering the Pacific Northwest when 70-mile per hour winds blew through the area Tuesday night, Dec. 16, through the afternoon of Wednesday, Dec. 17.

Though no injuries or property damage was reported, the port of entry into the United States and Canada, stationed in Metaline Falls, was closed for an unknown length of time during the morning due to power outages. The port reopened several hours later.

The Pend Oreille Public Utility District had 4,700 people lose power during the recent windstorm, according to spokesperson Joe Hathaway. He said at approximately 11 p.m. last Tuesday night people started losing power as trees were blown down, hitting power lines and poles. There were six broken poles and 20 wires down during the outages. At the peak, over 1,800 people were without power midday on Dec. 17. The power outages continued through Thursday.

According to Pend Oreille County Emergency Manager JoAnn Boggs, county road crews, Washington Department of Transportation crews and local firefighters started removing fallen trees from the highway and county roadways early Wednesday morning.

“It’s been a very busy morning,” Boggs said. “But considering what’s going on in other parts of the state, we’re very lucky.”

Boggs said she and other county officials across the state have been attending daily online briefings with the Washington Emergency Management Division considering the severe flooding happening in west and central communities.

“We don’t have any emergency notifications here, but this is a good opportunity for people to check their preparedness kits in case we do get a storm that knocks the power out for an extended length of time,” Boggs said.

The county emergency management Facebook page is updated daily at www.facebook.com/ PendOreilleCountyEmergency-Management, and residents are encouraged to sign up to receive emergency updates through the Community Information Service (Nixle). Go to www.pendoreille. gov/emergency-management, scroll down and follow the prompts.

SOPHIA MATTICE-ALDOUS IS A MURROW NEWS FELLOW WORKING DIRECTLY WITH NEWSROOMS AT THE NEWPORT MINER AND RANGE MEDIA THROUGH A PROGRAM ADMINISTERED BY WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY. HER REPORTING IS AVAILABLE FOR USE VIA CREATIVE COMMONS WITH CREDIT.