LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – A ferocious windstorm that tore through Lake County Thursday evening and early Friday morning left thousands of county residents without power, and upended countless trees which took down power poles, damaged homes and vehicles, and in several cases sparked wildland fires.
The National Weather Service had issued a Thursday afternoon wind advisory – later upgraded to a high wind warning – that stated winds would peak on Thursday night, and the prediction held true.
The rain the county had experienced over the last few days, coupled with the onslaught of the winds, served to begin a process in the afternoon of toppling trees.
As the winds picked up – gusts were expected to be as high as 60 miles per hour – there were numerous reports of trees falling across roads and into power lines. There was even a flipped-over carport in Clearlake Oaks.
Firefighters, police and road crews would be dispatched from one call to another, with Central Dispatch inundated by 911 calls throughout the night.
In the early evening, power was cut off to about 5,000 thousand residents, with Pacific Gas and Electric reporting that the outages were largely weather-related.
Power would be restored and knocked out intermittently through the night, with about 10,000 county residents – primarily in the Clearlake and Nice areas – reported to be without power around midnight, according to PG&E. Most of those residents had power restored in the early morning hours.
The winds seemed only to become more fierce, with the night punctuated by the sounds of exploding transformers and arcing lines in various parts of the county, including at a power substation near Lower Lake, according to reports from witnesses and first responders.
Nice and Clearlake both were especially hard hit. A Plumas Street home in Nice had its roof ripped off, and there were countless reports of fallen trees and downed lines in both communities, and several instances of homes damaged by falling trees.
At around 10 p.m. a tree fell on three parked cars at the Drift Inn RV Resort on Lakeshore in Nice, according to a witness.
Near Paradise Cove outside of Lucerne, a wildland fire was reported on the north side of Highway 20 shortly before 9:30 p.m.
Cal Fire Battalion Chief Greg Bertelli said it reached about 15 acres and was about 50 percent contained when Cal Fire units turned the incident over to Northshore Fire in order to respond to other incidents.
Another wildland fire was reported just before 1 a.m. at Witter Springs, with Lakeport and Northshore Fire Protection District firefighters containing it to about three acres in around 45 minutes, according to reports from the scene.
At the same time, Lake County Fire Protection District personnel were dispatched to a structure fire in the area of Cache Creek Way and Old Highway 53, with entrance to the fire made difficult and dangerous by downed power lines.
Just after 2 a.m., Cal Fire was dispatched to a report of a fire in The Geysers geothermal steamfield, with units responding from Lake and Sonoma counties.
During the night and early morning, several large trees also were reported to have fallen across Highway 20 in Nice and Lucerne, causing temporary highway closures.
Just before 4:30 a.m., lines were reported to be down at Lucerne Elementary School.
The National Weather Service's high wind warning remains in effect until noon on Friday.
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