Some Davis, Weber county residents still without power after windstorm


10 photos
Save Story

Show 2 more videos

Leer en español

Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes

This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.

NORTH OGDEN — Neighbors turned out in force to help each other clean up after strong winds over the weekend left a trail of broken trees, splintered fences and mangled trampolines across the city.

The windstorm knocked out power to about 39,000 Rocky Mountain Power customers in Weber and Davis counties, including 978 who were still in the dark at 9:45 p.m. Monday. Crews from as far away as Idaho and Price were working to repair damaged substations and electrical lines.

"We're throwing everything we have at it," said Dave Eskelson, Rocky Mountain Power spokesman.

Some Davis, Weber county residents still without power after windstorm

Power was expected to be restored to all customers affected by the winds by noon Tuesday.

Eskelson said the outages are scattered throughout the two counties, which took the brunt of the heavy winds. Because of that, workers might be only able to restore power to 10 or 12 customers at a time, he said.

Northern Utah cities were also assessing damage Monday.

Centerville Police Chief Paul Child estimates losses citywide at $500,000, including about $15,000 to public property.

North Ogden residents hauled more than 1,300 truck and trailer loads of limbs and branches to the city's green waste facility. Chainsaws were still whirring and people were still dropping off debris Monday as the piles reached 20 feet to 30 feet high.

North Ogden Mayor Brent Taylor said that's as much as the city collects and mulches over three or four years.

"It's just way more than we can possibly handle," he said. "We're probably going to have burn some of it to be honest."

But Taylor said it was amazing to see so many people working together, including some who just drove around town looking for people to help. Churches canceled services to pitch in, he said.

Taylor said he talked to man and his grandson who dropped off 11 loads Sunday. When he asked the man how many trees he lost, he said, "Oh, these are all my neighbors' (trees). I have not even started on my yard yet."

Related

Wind gusts hit 91 mph in Davis County and 70 mph in Weber County early Sunday morning, toppling hundreds of trees, including dozens that fell on roofs and cars, downing fences and breaking street signs.

Local officials weren't aware of any injuries. Child said most people were in their homes when the winds picked up during the night, protecting them from flying debris.

"We were hit pretty hard," said Farmington city manager Dave Millheim. "I thought the house was coming off the foundation. It really shook pretty good."

But, he said, damage across the city wasn't as bad as it could of been due to social media and a fortuitous spring cleanup project.

The city posted the storm warning on its website Friday afternoon. It had 6,000 views by that evening and more than 100,000 over the weekend, he said.

"I guess the message here was people were prepared and people really did batten down the hatches and clean up," Millheim said.

And a week ago, Farmington finished its annual spring cleanup, hauling away more than double the usual amount of residents' yard waste.

"I think the spring cleanup really paid off for us because it got rid of a lot of stuff before it came down in an unorganized manner," he said.

Centerville residents, too, are continuing to remove tree limbs and repair roofs. Like other areas, residents pitched in to help each other.

"We hope to be back to normal by midweek," said Mayor Paul Cutler.

Contributing: Mike Anderson, Ashley Kewish

Some Davis, Weber county residents still without power after windstorm

Photos

Related stories

Most recent Utah stories

Related topics

Utah
Dennis Romboy

    STAY IN THE KNOW

    Get informative articles and interesting stories delivered to your inbox weekly. Subscribe to the KSL.com Trending 5.
    By subscribing, you acknowledge and agree to KSL.com's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

    KSL Weather Forecast