60+ mph Tri-Cities winds cause 7-car chain-reaction crash, crumple trees and power lines

Crews were working Monday to clean up fallen trees and limbs after Sunday’s powerful windstorm swept across Eastern Washington.

Dust darkened the skies in places, causing visibility problems for drivers.

The peak gust reported at the Tri-Cities Airport was 63 mph at 6:40 p.m., according to the National Weather Service.

The weather service reported an 85 mph gust on Interstate 84 at Mission, Ore., just east of Pendleton; a 70 mph gust at Benton City and a 65 mph gust at Kahlotus.

A gust of 99.8 mph was recorded Sunday afternoon at Rattlesnake Mountain, showed data from the Hanford Meteorological Station.

The National Weather Service had issued a high wind warning and blowing dust advisory for the Tri-Cities through 5 a.m. Monday.

A seven-vehicle, chain-reaction crash on Interstate 182 at 3:30 p.m. Sunday started when several cars and trucks slowed because of blinding dust in Richland.

The four cars, two SUVs and and one pickup blocked the westbound lanes of the interstate just west of Queensgate Boulevard.

Injuries were minor, said the Washington State Patrol, but a 57-year old man from Sunnyside was taken to Kadlec Regional Medical Center in Richland by ambulance.

Interstate 90 was closed from east of Moses Lake to Highway 395 at Ritzville for about six hours because of poor visibility.

A woman who drove the stretch of road just 30 minutes before it was closed described the experience as “pretty scary” on the Washington state Department of Transportation East Twitter feed and said she was “white knuckling it.”

Pasco police reported several trees were down in streets and parks across the city, but none hit homes or cars.

Kennewick police reported the wind topped several trees across the city, including some massive ones. That included a tree at 19th Avenue and Shepherd Street crashed through a fence and blocked the roadway.

Officers helped cut the trees to get them out of the road and rounded up two dogs that escaped from their yard.

“A nice gentleman fell victim to one of these large trees picking his truck as its landing spot,” Kennewick police said on Facebook. “Unfortunately he had just paid it off.”

The power outage caused several traffic lights to go out, and triggered numerous business alarms to sound.

The problems caused a spike in calls to 911.

East 25th Avenue in Finley was closed at an intersection between Yew Street and Highway 397 after a tree took down a power line.

In north Franklin County, Road 170 also was closed after a vehicle hit a power pole between Baart and Colonial roads, taking out power lines.

Benton County PUD reported a power outage affecting 829 customers Sunday evening in the area along South Morain Street and Kennewick Avenue to Fourth Avenue and Vancouver Street in Kennewick after a tree fell into a power line.

The outage started before 7 p.m. and power had been restored about 9:45 p.m.

The public utility district also had some scattered, smaller outages.

The Franklin PUD was reporting outages near downtown Pasco and Pasco High School just before 8 p.m.

Big Bend Electric Cooperative had power outages in Franklin County north of Pasco, with service restored about midnight.

This story was originally published March 28, 2021 at 10:01 PM.