HAYDEN, Idaho — First responders in North Idaho said Tuesday’s night’s storm kept both fire crews and electrical workers extremely busy.
At least one home was damaged by a falling tree and a person was transported to the hospital with injuries received related to the storm.
Chris Larson, a spokesman with the Northern Lakes Fire District, said crews in Kootenai County received reports of 151 incidents during the storm. Notably, two people were struck by a tree in Twin Lakes, Larson said.
A home on Kelly Rae Drive in Hayden suffered notable roof damage after a tall pine tree apparently snapped during the storm and fell on the home. Larson said that crews in a separate fire district responded to a small fire near Bennett Bay on Lake Coeur d’Alene.
Following the storm, Kootenai Electric said line crews responded to 18 different outages in the area. Over 3,000 customers were without power at one point, the utility said.
At the Kelly Rae Drive home, employees from a disaster recovery company could be seen placing a large tarp over a section of the roof damaged by the fallen tree. Blake Stuker, a Servicemaster of North Idaho employee, said the tree fell on what appeared to be a bedroom.
"Whoever was in there had to be pretty scared when it hit. That was the first thing I thought: ‘Hope somebody was OK, whoever was in there,’" Stuker said.
While nobody in the home was hurt, Stuker said the family living inside had temporarily relocated to a hotel.
"To be up close to that, to see the kind of damage it did and it didn't take out the whole house - I was pretty surprised about that,” Stuker added.
During the windstorm, Larson said Northern Lakes Fire responded to six 911 calls within just 30 minutes. While Larson said that one of the people injured in the Twin Lakes incident was taken to Kootenai Health, staff at the hospital weren’t immediately able to confirm if anyone was admitted following the storm.
“We will be vigilantly watching for smoldering fires from lightning strikes for the next few days as temperatures warm up,” said Larson in a message to KREM. “It is really important if someone sees or smell smoke to notify 911 centers so we can send crews out to assess the situation and suppress fires before they grow.”