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SALT LAKE CITY — Wind gusts upward of 70 miles per hour closed roads, knocked out power and sent debris flying along the Wasatch Front Thursday morning.
The National Weather Service reported a gust of 106 mph at Ogden Peak.
In the Foothill area of Salt Lake City, scaffolding on a building under construction partially collapsed and debris temporarily blocked part of the road, officials said. Winds blew down five stories of scaffolding at The Ridge senior living development, where I-215 and I-80 meet at Foothill Drive. The road has since been cleared, but the blown over scaffolding is still on the sidewalk in the area.
Carl Schrank, Sahara Construction's safety manager and project executive, said the scaffolding was "well secured" and "well bonded" and had passed a number of inspections prior to Thursday.
"We believe it was just an extreme wind event that brought it down," he said.
No one was injured in the incident.
Motorists couldn't access Foothill Drive or Parley's Way westbound on I-80 for about an hour Thursday morning. Traffic being diverted in the area caused major delays on multiple routes during the morning commute. One lane on westbound I-80 was reopened just before 8 a.m.
Video of the trampoline in power line in #Tooele earlier this morning @KSL5TV#utwx#utwindpic.twitter.com/pngS32WlQK
— Derek Petersen (@Derek_Photog) February 18, 2016
A downed power line caused delays in Emigration Canyon and restrictions were in place for Sardine Canyon, Parley's Canyon and Big and Little Cottonwood Canyons Thursday afternoon due to the storm. Utah Department of Transportation officials said the snowfall caused major delays on I-80 in Parley's Canyon and chains or 4-wheel drive are required.
The high winds continued into the afternoon, and around 12 p.m., 40 mile per hour winds grounded flights at the Salt Lake City International Airport, according to spokesperson Nancy Volmer. She said winds need to be below 40 miles per hour in order to de-ice the planes. Airport officials are currently expecting 15 minute delays.
Several power outages also resulted from the high winds. Rocky Mountain Power officials said about 11,000 customers are currently without power throughout Utah including the areas of Moab, Castle Valley, Erda, Stansbury Park, Tooele, Salt Lake City, Brighton, Big Cottonwood and 1,200 people affected in Park City.
Granite School District officials said the wind also caused power outages at Spring Elementary and Lane Elementary Thursday morning, but that emergency lighting was in place and school would proceed as normal.
Wind damage in Tooele County included four downed trees at the Tooele Cemetery, one of which was blocking the entrance. A shed in the cemetery was also blown over and landed against a house.
A high wind advisory is in effect until 5 p.m. along the Wasatch Front. Wind gusts are expected to die down and turn into rain and snow around noon. Get a complete forecast on the KSL.com weather page. For traffic updates, listen to KSL Newsradio.
Updates will be posted as they become available.
Correction: (Feb. 2, 2016) This story originally indicated that a building partially collapsed in the wind. Only the scaffolding was affected by the wind.
Contributing: Pat Reavy, Shara Park, Peter Samore, Mary Richards and Haley Smith
