We heard the cracking of the limbs.
It looks like a war zone.
That's a revolter.
All of a sudden, boom, it fell.
It's been a long 24 hours.
From your Northwest News Channel, Ice Storm 96, a special edition of Q6 News.
Day three of Ice Storm 96.
Good evening, everyone.
I'm Randy Shaw, along with Deborah Wilde.
Randy and I are here at the Spokane Convention Center, where a shelter has been set up.
Yesterday, there were about 50 people.
Tonight, there are about 200 people.
And with the weather and the temperatures headed the way they're headed, they are encouraging
you to come down if this is some place that you think you need to be.
And it's pretty cozy.
Right.
And it is very cozy.
It's very nice.
The cots are set up in here and blankets are provided.
But if you do come down to the shelter, please bring your own medications and try and bring
a blanket or maybe a sleeping bag with you if you can.
But we want to let you know that the shelters are safe and that people here are still coming
in because of the snow and the freezing rain that's going on right now.
Thor Road on the Spokane South Hill has been closed.
So the temperatures are getting down there and there's freezing ice on the road.
So just an extra warning.
Take some precaution and don't hesitate.
We want to check in with the command post of the Emergency Services Center now as we
switch live to Gary Darigol for the latest.
Gary?
Randy, this is where the decisions are being made in regards to the emergency.
We're at Fire Station One.
You can see right here the rigs have been running an awful lot.
They're still dripping water.
No time for them to dry off with all the calls that have been going on.
With so many people using fireplaces, it's important, the fire department wants to remind
you, you better have a working smoke detector because again of all the fires that have been
caused, there have been a number of them.
Just recently there was a fire up on Pittsburgh, around 10th and Pittsburgh, where a very dangerous
situation there.
Meantime neighbors are trying to figure out ways to deal with this ice storm.
This is the kind of danger you can face just from trimming back trees.
Another danger comes from your own fireplace.
Many of them simply aren't meant to be used 24 hours a day and the heat buildup can cause
a fire in surrounding walls.
Propane heaters keep you warm but be sure you're letting in fresh air.
You just can't have all of this going.
This generator is being used by three homes to keep everybody there warm.
Extension cords stretch across the street to a neighbor's house.
But it only works if you have a gas forced air system.
All you're doing is powering the fan.
So I'm actually cheating, I'm watching TV in there too.
Another warning for you from power companies if your home is still dark.
Unplug your appliances because when the power does come back on, electricity surges could
damage things such as your stove.
Confirmation again here from the command center one more time.
Schools closed in Mead, Central Valley, West Valley, East Valley and the Spokane Public
School District number 81.
Those are the major school districts in the area.
We do know they will again be closed tomorrow.
Randy, Deb?
Gary, I also understand the fire department has been extremely busy tonight.
Any more of those fires that we've been hearing about, the chimney fires and so on?
Yeah, again the most recent fire as we say was a 10th in Pittsburgh, a home heavily damaged.
It looks like it may be destroyed because of that because the fire actually got into
the roof area and burned right through into that.
This fire station right here is the one that responded to that and they were on that for
a number of hours.
And what a, oh go ahead Deb.
Earlier when we talked to you today you had said that they had called up the Air National
Guard.
Can you explain a little bit more about what they're going to be doing?
Yeah, again the National Guard has been mobilized.
The Spokane units are going to be called up to deal with the situation.
In fact, the west side of the state is being asked to send over 15 generators to deal with
the power outages around here specifically for emergency situations.
We do know that Washington Water Power is specifically working in some areas to get
power to water lines that need to be recharged so people can get water in their homes.
All right, Gary, thank you.
We'll check back with you a little bit later.
We want to share some phone numbers with you right now.
It's a very important phone number so if you have a pencil and paper handy please jot these
down.
We'll also have all of the school closings for you coming up in just a little bit.
Now this is for non-emergency requests.
We want you to call 456-2349.
And for downed power lines, these are power lines that you may have noticed this afternoon
or this evening, you can call 4890500.
If you have sewer problems, that number is 625-7900.
And water problems, 625-7800.
And the Red Cross, of course, which has been very involved and has done a wonderful job,
326-3330.
Time now to check in with Dana Haynes who is down at Washington Water Power with an
update on the numbers of those who are still without power.
Dana?
And we have the best possible estimates at this point.
Take a look at these numbers.
Washington Water Power is reporting at this point 35,400 customers without power.
That includes the Coeur d'Alene area.
When we're talking about inland power and light, 4,400 customers without power.
So that is roughly 40,000 people still in the dark right now.
Now the race to restore power continues although at this point it's more like a marathon tonight.
Hawkeye Construction is on a power trip.
They are from Portland here to power us up.
They've been working...
Three days straight.
How much sleep are you working on?
We had an hour this morning.
Exhausted but well aware of the need.
They've been out of power a long time, you know, and they just want to know when they
can get back in service.
This anxious driver just can't resist asking the obvious question, when will I have power?
20 minutes maybe.
In the bucket of their cherry picker, this crew works fast with these nearby residents
patiently watching and waiting.
With just one move, the power is restored on this block.
The Nelsons have been existing by fire power.
Tuesday was the last time they had light.
I've got a gas range and we've been cooking everything on top and we've just...
I'm from northeastern Montana and so this is just a normal thing.
But it's not normal for most and this Portland crew will probably be here until things get
back to normal.
Probably until water power gets a handle on everything.
Now Washington Water Power has devised a map tonight that will help answer some questions.
What they've done is subdivided their coverage area and they've actually put in where some
of the feeder lines are.
They know exactly where these crews are.
So if a customer calls in and says, say, I live in the valley, well they can tell exactly
where that person is talking and tell that customer if there are some crews in their
area.
So at least some of the questions are getting answered tonight.
Randy, Deb?
I was going to ask personal reasons but I won't.
All right, Dennis, thank you.
Of course, school closures, almost all that we know of.
That's right and we want to give you the list right now.
Liberty is two hours late tomorrow.
Nine Mile Falls is closed.
St. George's School is closed and Whitworth College will be closed until December 2nd.
And Reardon-Edwall will be two hours late tomorrow.
District 81, Central Valley, East Valley and West Valley.
Northwest Christian, both campuses.
Kootenay Joint 274, Meade and Dynamic Christian Academy closed too.
And we have some new ones added to the list.
St. John Vienny, All Saints Catholic Church, Deer Park and Valley Christian.
All those schools are closed as well.
Of course, all of this depends on what the weather situation is going to be.
Right now it's snowing outside.
It's snowing and or raining.
Mark Peterson has all the answers.
Mark?
All the answers.
I love this.
The answer that everyone's asking, how much are we going to get?
Up to four inches by tomorrow midday.
Bedtime, we're still seeing somewhat heavy snowfall come in.
Twenty-seven for the expected temperature.
Bedtime, waking up more snow and it should be tapering off.
Here's the problem.
Eight o'clock.
We're at least one inch on the ground.
It looks like we'll have a little more than that.
But we could see it turn to freezing rain at least temporarily and even a little bit
could be a problem.
So we'll be watching that and we'll have more on the forecast coming up.
Deb, Brandy?
Thanks, Mark.
Thank you.
Let's take a look at some of the shelters.
We are here at the Spokane Convention Center, which is a big one and we have a lot of room
for you if you'd like to come down.
But there are other ones across Eastern Washington and Northern Idaho as well.
Take a look.
Fairway Heights Community Center, 13120 West 13th Avenue and Millwood School, 8818 East
Grace.
Now, these shelters like the one we're in here at the community center are open for
you tonight.
The Diamond Affairs, that's on North Regal at 5201.
Libby Elementary School at 2900 East First is open tonight.
And of course, where we are here at the Spokane Convention Center.
Well, last night there were about 50 people here.
Now there are more than 200 and they're still filing in tonight.
Fairchild Air Force Base has opened up the gymnasium and the Moose Lodge here in North
Spokane 6363 North Lidgerwood.
And in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, we have the Seventh-day Adventist Church there is still open at 111
Locust Street.
And in Post Falls on 417 North Williams, that's the community Presbyterian Church.
Time now to check in with Deb Carr, who's out there on the highways and the byways.
Doesn't look very good tonight, Beth.
I'll tell you what, Deb.
Tell Mark that we've already had the inchi predicted by 8 o'clock and the sleet is already
falling.
We've seen that for the last half hour or so.
It is awfully slow going on the highways and both on the surface streets and on the highways.
Most of it is attributed to the snow and the sleet that's falling now and the ice that's
underneath but also to downed trees.
The trees have of course knocked out the power lines and that's causing problems.
Earlier a few minutes ago down on Thor at about 8, what they did was closed off Thor
coming up the hill.
It was only temporary though because we found out they had to let a big chemical truck up
the hill.
They didn't want any problems in case he split or stopped.
Earlier though, the big problem was on I-90 west of Spokane.
There was a guy in a Toyota pickup truck came barreling over Sunset Highway, saw two police
cars sitting there, slammed on his brake, lost control.
He flipped, smashed into another truck.
Apparently no serious injuries but the state patrol does say that alcohol was involved.
The driver of the red truck was charged with vehicular assault.
Now back here on the surface streets it is slow.
Here at 29th and Ray we've seen cars trying to make it up the hill.
The good news is we saw two de-icing trucks come through just about 10 minutes ago so
that may help things but we're still seeing cars sliding around the corners and by the
way they're going entirely too fast so we need to slow down.
These conditions are not safe.
Deb, ready?
They're fast and they're following too closely.
We're going to test that.
All right, thank you Deb.
We are here at the Spokane Convention Center.
That's what you hear.
Red Cross volunteers are in need.
We're going to take a break.
We'll come back.
We'll come back for more weather coverage.
Races are.
100 and 90 and they're still coming in as the snow and the sleet are falling outside.
We also want to make one quick mention and thank Huppens for bringing down some great
big TVs tonight.
A couple of them like that so that the folks down here can enjoy some television and so
on.
We have some popcorn and some other treats that have been provided by the folks that
we'll get to in a minute.
We want to mention those too.
We want to mention those businesses later on and we will do that.
We'll run through them.
Okay, we've got them here.
I know.
All the people popping popcorn and they should be thankful.
People take care of people and it's very nice to see.
Now you want to just talk about Mark Peterson?
We can talk about him but he can hear.
Oh, okay.
We'll talk about him when he can't hear.
Mark, we're seeing you.
You know how these things go.
Oh, I know.
But all I know is that you guys get to watch ER with the big screen and now I'm jealous.
All right, Passively forecast tonight again, more snow.
We told you lower elevations in the valley.
They're having the freezing rain and 27 degrees for the expected low.
Tomorrow morning snow tapering off mixed with rain at times and then that too will clear
out and we'll have cloudy skies and it'll kick up again for Saturday.
Take a look at what we have outside.
The snow continues to fall.
We have snow rain mix and we're continuing to see some of the problems inherent with
this system.
A little bit of warm air coming in from the south and that's causing the problems.
Taking a look at what's going on in our part of the world.
We continue to look for this cloud cover.
We had about a 50 year old flowering Hawthorn tree down in our driveway and it toppled and
it's real sad.
My husband spent the most greater part of the day just sawing it up and putting it in
the truck.
The chainsaw is becoming sort of the tool of choice.
Yes, sir.
It's a popular item.
We mount it on the hood and they whistle at us.
How's it going so far getting rid of all the debris?
Actually it's been going pretty well.
We've got several sites that are open.
We've got Manitou up here on the south hill.
We've got Highbridge Park which is down in the central part of town and Joel Beach Stadium
out on the north end of town and along with that we also have the waste energy plant and
our two transfer stations that are also taking the material free of charge.
What are you looking at for time to keep these sites open?
We're going to leave the Manitou site, the Highbridge Park site and Albee open through
the weekend and then those will go back to being regular facilities after that.
As they've started to get into doing their cleanup and got their real emergency things
out of the way people are starting to calm down and take their time and kind of band
together and work together to get it cleaned up.
Yeah, it was a great adventure the first night.
The second night was not quite so much fun but we have a good attitude and you know we're
doing alright.
So with that and sometimes there are over 50 trucks in line to get rid of their debris.
The snow is falling down now.
They're not worried about the debris.
They're worrying about staying warm.
You can go to a shelter and there is Devon Randi sitting at one right now with big screens,
popcorn and coffee.
I'm looking at you on that big screen.
You look pretty good.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
How about Tony Bogan?
They were talking to you, our friend Tony.
Yeah, our friend Tony Bogan, we saw her in furniture commercials and around town but
it was nice to see her.
I'm sorry that we saw her under those conditions but it was nice to see her again.
We're supposed to take a break right now.
We'll be back in a minute.
Just in time for holiday parties and family.
A shelter for people without power and people needing to get warm, get some food and cots.
We want to thank all of the people, many, many distributors down here and businesses
who have donated to the Red Cross and to the shelter tonight.
Costco has donated some cookies and hot chocolate and B&B distributors, bottled water.
We've got popcorn from Pierlos Sunpuff and from Cravens who's donating a lot of hot coffee.
There's some pretty good bagels down here from Great Harvest.
Rosara's brought a nice cake.
Hublins, of course, those big screen TVs, thank you and Red Cross for everything that
they are doing and Washington Water Power is here to answer questions.
And boy do I have a few for them.
When will my power, no, they're down here and-
A lot of people without power and-
We appreciate the fact that they're here.
At least they're making some progress tonight.
We're going to find out what kind of progress is going on in North Idaho.
We switch live now to Toby Hanley.
Toby, what's the latest?
Well, the latest is that there are several power companies from around the state who
are in Coeur d'Alene and- I was there last night and they've got a big gym and a big
family room and a big meeting hall as well as something across the street.
So there's plenty of room at that shelter, yes.
Thank you.
Toby Hanley reporting live.
Remember that the Red Cross also needs some help.
So if you can donate to them, that would be greatly appreciated, especially in this time
of need right now.
And we want to thank VTV for cable TVs down here as well at the convention center.
Time for another break.
We're back in just a moment.
Randy Shaw sticking through this storm.
We're testing it now.
Yes, we are.
A lot of nerves being tested out there.
Time to check in with Gary Darragol.
He's at the emergency command post with the latest.
Gary?
Yeah, Deb, this is Fire Station 1.
You know, these fire clothes have been getting a lot of work out today.
There have been a number of fires and a number of emergencies reported.
So these rigs have been heading out on the streets a number of times as well.
The problem is many people have been trapped in their homes for now for several days without
power and the real serious problems are cropping up, especially for the elderly who are just
now showing up at some of the shelters.
And again, those are the people that are being taken care of.
We do again have confirmation from the command post tonight that we do know that Mead, Central
Valley, East Valley, West Valley, and Spokane Public School District 81, all going to be
closed again tomorrow.
And one more important thing, and I'm sure you're aware of this, at those shelters, the
Red Cross is again asking for help from any doctors and nurses in the area that can volunteer
some help to check out the people for their medical care at the various shelters all around
the area.
And speaking of shelters, Seth Woodard is reopening out in the valley on 7400 East Mission.
So if you have to get to a place, that's available to you as well.
Randy, Deb?
Gary, any word on the fires tonight from the station?
Again right now, it's kind of quiet at Station 1.
We were checking on how many fires there have been.
Again, the most recent one we're aware of was at 10th and Pittsburgh.
Many injured there, but again the home heavily damaged.
And again, the problem being, a lot of people are burning fires in fireplaces, and if there's
any kind of problem with a fireplace, any leaks, it's causing fires because the fires
are burning so hot and for so long.
All right.
Thank you, Gary.
You think of the fire crews, the police, the sheriff's department, the water power crews,
all the guys and gals out there working real hard.
Long hours for them.
Much appreciated.
Take another break?
I think so.
Thank you, Gary.
Casting live from the Spokane Convention Center, which is a Red Cross shelter tonight.
We do have a number that we want to share with you on the screen right now.
And this is a number for you to call if you need to get to a shelter.
And if you're making that decision tonight, please jot this number down.
The number is 456-2204.
It is 456-2204.
You call that number and you can get free transportation down to one of these shelters.
And there are many of them open for you tonight.
And let's take one last look at some of those shelters.
Of course, in Airway Heights, 13120 West 13th, Millwood Elementary, 8818 East Grace.
And Diamond Affairs on North Regal at 5201.
And Libby Elementary School, 2900 East 1st.
Spokane Convention Center, which is where we're broadcasting live from tonight.
And Fairchild Air Force Base, the gymnasium is open out there as is the Moose Lodge, 6363
North Ridgerwood.
Coeur d'Alene, the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
And Seth Woodard out in the valley, I believe 7401 East Mission.
That'll do it for us tonight.
Please stay safe and stay warm.
Good night.