April 17, 2002
Some 16-thousands Wasatch Front residents are still without power this morning, after this week's strong wind storms.
That means several thousand families spent another dark, cold night without any power!
Many families are improvising with candles and flashlights, until things get back to normal.
Utah Power says most power should be back on this afternoon.
Several schools in Draper will stay closed today, because of the outages.
They are Juan Diego High School, Saint John the Baptist Middle and Elementary schools, and the Guardian Angel Daycare Center.
April 16, 2002
The morning after the storm, it was lights out for students and staff at Lincoln Elementary in Salt Lake. The hallways were so dark, teachers used flashlights to find their way around the building.
Inside some classrooms, sunshine coming through the window provided enough light for students.
But without light, there was little they could do.
Some students played games, others took reading tests near the window.
Teachers were just trying to keep the students busy.
Lincoln Elementary was one of 3 schools in the Salt Lake City school district that dismissed early because of power outages.
About a third of the 600 students came to class. Many kids didn't show up or went home early.
The phone lines were also down, so students had to use cell phones to contact their parents.
Utah Power estimates that 95,000 customers were effected. In some areas, it may take until tomorrow to restore power.
April 15, 2002
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Team Report: Monday 10 pm
Raging winds whipped up trouble from one end of the state to the other on Monday.
Almost everyone got a taste of the spring storm, with dust in the mouth, and grit in the eyes.
Tens of thousands of people lost their electricity up and down the Wasatch Front.
That's largely because of damage to power lines. It was spotty, but in some cases power was off for several hours.
Winds along the Wasatch Front gusted up to 70 miles an hour, 82 miles an hour in St. George.
Unofficially, it guested as high as 108 in the West Desert, but that's unconfirmed.
With winds like that, a lot of buildings had trouble keeping their lids on. Many houses lost their shingles.
A few busineseses lost roofs. Or parts of roofs.
One company lost hundreds of pounds of roofing material.
Trees went down in many places, including one at Pioneer Park in downtown Salt Lake.
At the New York Burrito company in Salt Lake, the fierce wind blew in a window, sending shards of glass flying. Fortunately, no one was hurt.
At the airport most flights proceeded normally. But the smaller planes operated by SkyWest were grounded for a good part of the afternoon.
There were many road complications. I-80 was closed to high profile vehicles in Tooele County.
An overturned semi tied up Interstate 15 near Point of the Mountain.
And everywhere, there was dust. Unbelievable amounts of dust.
South of Fillmore, gusts of more than 50 miles per hour cut visibility and caused a 16 car-pile-up on I-15. That shut the freeway in both directions.
The crashes began shortly after 10am.
At mile marker 150 a camper plowed into a van, a car crashed into a semi, and debris was strewn on the road.
In all 14 cars and two semis were smashed in the pile-up.
All along the I-15 corridor wind wiped out visibility.
The Millard County Sheriff says they get plenty of wind storms, but he's never seen anything like this.
In Draper,
17 power poles carrying 113,000 volts blew over, landing on an apartment complex and several homes.
People inside those buildings were told to stay inside until crews made sure the power to those downed poles was cut. The nearby road-- 118th South-- was closed.
In West Valley City, a power outage snarled traffic along 3500 South, from 3450 West to Bangerter Highway. KSL Newsradio's reporter says at one point it took him 15 minutes to travel six blocks in that area.
The Jordan School District cautioned parents that students who ride the bus home were safe, but would likely be late coming home because of traffic backups.
You'd think it would have been a relief when it started to rain, later in the afternoon. But that was kind of irritating, too. Dust and rain added up to dirty water falling on your windshield.
The National Weather Service says this was NOT the same type of weather that generated a tornado in Salt Lake City back in 1999.
This storm was part of a cold front moving into Utah. Winds gave way to rain Monday evening.
Len Randolph forecasts snow on the valley floor Monday night. Snow was reported west of Wendover around 3:30 Monday afternoon.
Parowan Fire Update
An early season forest fire in Iron County will keep firefighters hard at work several more days.
A lightning strike started the fire Monday morning east of Parowan.
Wind gusts of nearly 80 miles per hour quickly fanned the flames to 160 acres.
Firefighters could not begin their assault in the rugged terrain until Tuesday morning.
Cooler temperatures dampened the flames, but the area received little moisture from the storm.
With no snowpack in the southern half of Utah, firefighters fear a long wildfire season.
