Storm of the decade

MOSES LAKE — Winds in excess of 60 miles per hour knocked out power, blew down trees and caused extensive damage as a powerful thunderstorm blew through Grant County Thursday night.  

“Winds at the Ephrata airport were 71 (miles per hour) at the peak,” said Dan Butler, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Spokane. 

Winds were recorded at 69 miles per hour at the Grant County International Airport in Moses Lake, he said.  

Those were the highest winds recorded during the storm, which covered all of Eastern Washington, Butler said.  

The high winds and heavy rains triggered power outages throughout the county. Chuck Allen, senior manager of external affairs and communications for the Grant County Public Utility District, said that at least 6,000 customers were without power as of 5:30 a.m. Friday.  

As of Friday afternoon, customers still without power were concentrated along State Route 28 and along the west shore of Moses Lake, but the storm was big enough that customers lost power from Coulee City to Quincy to Warden to Mattawa.  

“It hit pretty much the whole county,” Allen said. 

It’s one of the more memorable storms in his 14-year career with the PUD, he said.  

“This is probably one of the worst ones I’ve seen,” he said, “as far as how large an impact around the county this has had.” 

The Multi-Agency Communications Center oversees emergency communications in Grant County, and MACC had a busy night. Supervisor Charli Dittman said MACC received 345 911 calls and 372 non-emergency calls between 8 and 11 p.m. Thursday. 

“We called in some extra people. We had 13 total people here,” she said. “I would say that storm was pretty crazy for us.”  

Some dispatchers were onsite prior to the storm, she said, but the flood of calls required calling in remote workers.  

The Moses Lake School District canceled classes Friday, which will extend the school year, said Ryan Shannon, MLSD director of public relations. The school year was scheduled to end June 12, but will be extended to June 15. 

Butler said unusually hot weather contributed to the storm’s severity. The temperature reached 97 degrees in Moses Lake Thursday, compared to a normal high of about 76 degrees, he said. 

    Storm damage extended throughout the Columbia Basin.