Estimated read time: 2-3 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 Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information.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.
DAVIS COUNTY — Winds gusting up to 70 miles per hour hit parts of northern Utah Monday night and Tuesday morning, leaving behind some damage and power outages.
Though wind gusts of nearly 75 mph were recorded in Centerville Tuesday morning, schools remained open. Police warned of debris and power outages, and recommended that small children be picked up from school rather than walk.
As quickly as residents rushed out of their homes to assist sanitation crews picking up their garbage cans, others would blow over. Additional garbage pickup scheduled for Tuesday was postponed until Wednesday.
A weather station near Farmington reported gusts to 72 mph around 7:30 a.m. Tuesday, and 50 mph gusts hit Point of the Mountain in Salt Lake County.
The worst damage overnight was a light pole blown over at a Jerry Siener Buick GMC, 955 N. 400 East, in North Salt Lake. The pole landed on several vehicles, causing significant damage to at least one pickup truck.
Manager Ty Johnson said he is grateful the damage was to only one truck. He and his staff now plan to make the best of today's very cold and windy situation.
"We're going to have a wind sale. What do you do? When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade," Johnson said.
Some homeowners ended up with some of the same damage they had back in December 2011.
In Salt Lake City, powerful gusts toppled power lines in part of the city, including at 675 East and 2480 South. Pictures submitted to iWitness show damage at various other areas of northern Utah.
"Our patio roof was blown down. Made quite a noise when it came down and then blew upside down against the back of the house," wrote Jim Bown on iWitness.
Damage was not nearly as severe as in 2011, when strong winds caused about $3.6 million in infrastructure damage, toppled trees and knocked out power to some residents for days.
Sporadic power outages are reported. Weber County dispatch said multiple transformers blew out near mile marker 90 in Weber Canyon. More than 5,100 Ogden customers were without power, but most of it was restored by 7:30 a.m. Customers still without power can call 1-877-508-5088.
Winds are expected to continue.
"We may have hit the peak, but we're looking at potential for high gusts throughout the day," said KSL Meteorologist Grant Weyman. Get the weather forecast here.
The storm also contributed to slick road conditions in areas. I-80 was closed in both directions at Evanston, Wyo., due to winter conditions. Get traffic updates on KSL Newsradio.
The Utah Transit Authority was still running Frontrunner and TRAX trains Tuesday morning. It brought in extra crews to make sure rails are clear. UTA was not worried about wind knocking the trains over but what the wind could blow across the tracks.
Contributing: Andrew Adams and Pat Reavy
