High Winds Damage Homes, Uproot Trees

Many in Idaho Falls are bracing for big clean-ups on Thursday, after wind gusts Wednesday reached upwards of 70 miles per hour in some locations of eastern Idaho.

The weather knocked down trees and damaged homes and businesses. It blew apart a heavy plastic sign, leaving shattered pieces sprawled across Yellowstone Highway.

The falls on the Idaho Falls Greenbelt sounded like the ocean, but it was just the ripple effect of roaring winds on the Snake River.

The same winds that left Heidi Ibachs surveying the damage in front of her home.

“I was reading on the couch and I heard a big crack,” said Ibachs. “I saw the tree going ‘whoosh’, down into the birch trees.”

But those birch trees saved her house and maybe even her life.

“I don’t care for the wind,” said Ibachs.

Mother Nature left basketball hoops on the ground, trampolines looking trampled, fences torn apart, and tree after tree on its side.

One huge pine tree landed on a car stopped on 12th Street, but the man inside was able to get out safely.

The Gem State is certainly known for being windy, but many said this was a bit much.

“It’s one of the worst ones,” said Mark Franklin, from Rooftop Solutions. “We have a few real bad ones during the year, and this is one of them.”

Franklin kept busy, answering a call from The Red Lion hotel, where the roof was blowing off.

“If your roof is installed properly, it’ll hold at least 70 mile per hour winds, up to 150 miles per hour,” said Franklin.

The Stop and Shop in Firth could have used Franklin’s help, after a big gust left pieces of rooftop on the ground.

“It made a really loud noise,” said employee Nancy Lusk. “It scared me.”

As for Ibachs, she wasn’t scared later Wednesday night, but did have clean up plans in the works.

“A big mess,” said Ibachs, looking out on her yard. “I’m just lucky it didn’t hit the house.”

There were a number of power outages throughout the area on Wednesday afternoon.

Idaho Falls Power said at the peak of the storm, more than 4,400 people were in the dark. About 6,800 customers lost power at some point Wednesday. That number was down to 690 shortly before 9 p.m.

The utility said Thursday afternoon that electric service had been restored to most of its customers. It said restoring power was a “tedious process” due to the widespread nature of the outages.

Rocky Mountain Power said it had restored power to all of its customers.