Ferocious Tri-Cities winds knock out power, topple trees. Top gusts nearly 70 mph

Trees toppled and households spent hours without power after a fierce windstorm blew through the Tri-Cities area Friday night.

The National Weather Service reported a peak gust of 55 mph at the Tri-Cities Airport in Pasco. One mile north of Richland a gust of 63 mph was recorded. Kahlotus in rural Franklin County was even windier, with a gust of 69 mph recorded.

Electric utilities expected to work much of Saturday to restore power across the Tri-Cities area and west to Prosser.

“This evening has been interesting to say the least — trees falling on houses, fly-away trampoline, trees blocking countless roadways, trailers flipped, etc.,” the Benton County Sheriff’s Office posted to Facebook about 1:30 a.m.

Friday evening a power line fell across the Yakima River bridge on Twin Bridges Road just outside West Richland, closing the road for a time.

Residents were dealing with downed trees and tree limbs Saturday morning and looking for missing lawn chairs, trash cans and decor.

“Is the post windstorms etiquette that your neighbors bring your stuff back, or more proper to retrieve it yourself?” joked one Richland resident on social media.

Harris Avenue in north Richland was blocked Saturday morning by an evergreen that fell across the street from one sidewalk to the other.

Richland, Kennewick outages

The branch of an ash tree broke through the ceiling of Tim Cone’s living room at his home on Fruitland Street in Kennewick on Friday night.

“I didn’t want a treehouse,” he said with a laugh on Saturday while a crew from Quality Tree Service cuts away the fallen branch and limbs. He wasn’t home at the time but a neighbor called him about the damage.

Richland warned residents just before 5 a.m. Saturday that the power outage would “be a long one as crews work safely and diligently to get everyone back on.”

Some city residents lost power Friday night before midnight.

Richland city officials said Saturday morning that power was out from Swift Boulevard south to Aaron Drive and from the bypass highway east to the Columbia River.

It urged caution when driving because traffic lights were not working and warned residents not to attempt to remove trees or debris near power lines that had fallen. They should be treated as if they are live electrical wires, the city said.

One Richland resident reported that a power line fell on top of cars at Goethals Drive and Comstock Street.

Richland officials posted that many trees were down throughout the city, and homeowners are responsible for cleaning up their own trees. City crews will respond if roads are blocked.

Benton PUD in Kennewick reported that crews began responding to scattered outages before 10 p.m. Friday.

Then more than 540 households were without power near Kiona. An hour later 1,295 households and businesses lost power in the west end of Prosser.

The Mountain View and Painted Hills subdivisions were expected to be without water until power was restored.

As of 5:40 a.m. Saturday morning it had about 400 customers without power. As of 8 a.m., its power outage map showed scattered small outages, with the largest in west Pasco and up to 100 customers without electricity on Clearwater Avenue in Kennewick.

It expected to have crews working all day on power outages.

West Richland power

Benton REA had lost power to all or parts of three substations in West Richland by 1 a.m. Saturday and crews were working to restore power in West Richland and Prosser.

Just before 3 a.m. power was restored to two West Richland substations, but many customers remained without power. Two hours later the utility reported that power had been restored to most of the West Richland area, but crews continued to work on smaller outages there and in Prosser.

No information on Franklin PUD outages was immediately available.

On social media, customers were thanking utility workers who were out in the dark in the strong winds for their work.

“Please stay safe, it’s so dangerous out there right now and at least 3 more hours of this. Thank you for the hard work and long hours,” posted a Benton REA customer at 1 a.m.

Another person posted that the safety of the crew was more important than an immediate restoration of power to their home.

Others were posting about the redistribution of possessions throughout some neighborhoods.

“It’s called the Tri-City lottery. I never ‘win’. I always get plastic bags and tumbleweeds. Some people ‘win’ lawn furniture and trampolines,” posted one resident of Richland.

The forecast called for winds to remain closer to 10-15 mph on Sunday with some gusts up to 23 mph.

This story was originally published November 5, 2022 at 9:57 AM.