Trees in front of Priest River Junior High School - Uprooted!

The Thunder / lightning / wind storm that hit Priest River this week did enough damage in a couple of hours to keep crews busy cleaning up for days.

The trees in front of Priest River Junior High look pretty sad now…

But what seemed really strange was how bone dry the roots appeared to be. The close up of that huge root snapped in two showed no moisture at all, and the soil just a couple of feet down also appeared bone dry.

One has to wonder if the dry conditions led to the roots breaking in the strong winds during the storm.

So strange for a year that started out as rainy as this one did. And since the grass is green, I assume that the lawn had been watered regularly.

Huge tree root - snapped in two like a matchstick.

I didn’t make it all over town to get a lot of photos, but saw at least one house with a badly damaged roof and a couple of yards with trees across the lawns.

One story I heard was of a mobile home that was sliced in two, barely missing a child.

The good news in that sentence is the word “missing!” Losing a house is tragic, but it could have been so very much worse.

Apparently this storm hit in isolated spots all over Bonner County – some say we had small tornados, but I’ve heard no official word on that.

If you have a “storm story” I hope you’ll add it to our comments!