Wind wreaks havoc in area

Trees were toppled, power lines snapped in half, and at least one branch pierced a roof during Monday night's winds in Carson City.

"I heard the noise. It was a terrible crash, and then I walked in here and there is was," said Ada Roelke as she stood looking up into the 10-inch hole in her bedroom ceiling made by a poplar branch turned missile.

Roelke doesn't like to think what would have happened had she been in bed at 9 p.m. when the roof met Mother Nature. The enormous branch came in at an angle just above her bed and stopped four feet from the floor.

She said the branch was so snug in its hole that very little water made its way inside her room. Still, she stayed awake most of the night with worry.

The next morning her friend and arborist Robin Grayshield removed the tree and covered the hole with plastic.

Roelke said the same crew that only a year ago, gave her a new roof, will return to repair the damage sometime this week.

"That tree is coming down, I don't care how much (it costs,)" the former Nevada Appeal food columnist said of the 50-foot poplar sitting next to her Arrowhead Drive home. "I was going to buy a new car, but that tree's coming down. It's not going to do that to me again."

Winds on Monday in Carson City were recorded as high as 66 mph. In Reno, winds at the airport registered at 82 mph.

Residents on Tuesday morning found their fences were blown down, campaign signs in bushes and tree limbs littering the roads. Crews from Sierra Pacific Power Co. spent the morning repairing a power pole that had snapped, leaving its top dangling from lines on South Curry Street near Betts Street.

The 12,500-volt pole was repaired around noon, but about 30 customers, including some businesses along South Carson Street and homes in the Carson Indian Colony, were without power from midnight until the repair was completed.

In east Carson, along Edmonds Drive and near Empire, about 200 customers were without power from 7 p.m. until midnight when the wind blew open a switch and caused some arching, according to Karl Walquist, a spokesman for the power company. Carson City also experienced numerous momentary but widespread power outages caused by winds blowing lines together causing arching, he said.

A downed line in Minden behind the Verizon building left 20 customers without power from 2:30-6:30 a.m.

In front of the Brewery Arts Center, two 20-foot-tall juniper trees were blown over into the parking lot.

More wind is expected this week, but nothing like Monday, said Alex Hoon, National Weather Service general forecaster.

"(Today) we are expecting gusts of up to 30 mph in the afternoon and Thursday we are expecting gusts of up to 40 mph," he said.

He said both days are expected to be partly cloudy with temperatures in the high 60s to high 50s.

• Contact reporter F.T. Norton at ftnorton@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1213.