One injured, another escapes injury, in wind storm

Published 4:39 pm Tuesday, March 1, 2016

POULSBO — A wind storm blew across the Kitsap Peninsula March 1, downing trees, causing power outages, and injuring a Poulsbo woman and displacing her family.

The 35-year-old woman was transported with serious injuries after a large tree slammed into her family’s home on Norland Court, near North Kitsap High School.

The 41-year-old father said he looked out his window and noticed the large tree was “shaking at its roots.” He yelled for everyone to “get down!,” Poulsbo Fire Department spokeswoman Jody Matson reported.

The man’s two boys, ages 9 and 6, ducked. The children, including a 1-year-old girl, escaped unharmed but the mother was struck by a portion of the tree.

Medics treated the mom and then transported her to Harrison Medical Center in Bremerton. Poulsbo firefighters remained on scene to secure the power, water and gas. The home is uninhabitable; they are staying with relatives, and their home is insured, Matson reported.

‘ANOTHER FOOT, IT WOULD HAVE HIT HER’
Phyllis Mcvicker got very, very lucky. At 3:19. March 1, she had just left her home in the 1000 block of Cedar Lane, near Finn Hill Road, when the wind storm snapped a 50-foot branch off of a cedar tree alongside the street and sent it crashing down onto her 2002 Jeep Liberty and the power lines.

Amazingly, the main branches landed in front of and behind her car, leaving it almost untouched. While the branch took out the electrical power and shattered parts of the wooden telephone pole, none of the lines broke and fell on her car.

“Another foot or two, front or back, and it would have hit her,” marveled Poulsbo Police Sgt. Howard Leeming, who responded to the call of a driver trapped in a car. He didn’t have much time to consider the miracle, however. His vehicle’s tactical computer screen was covered with dozens of red and green icons, indicating other emergencies all over town.

CLOSURES
The Hood Canal Bridge was closed at 4:01 p.m. until further notice because of high winds. “Crews are standing by to reopen the bridge to vehicle traffic as soon as weather improves,” the state Department of Transportation repotted in an email alert.

Power was out on the south end of Bainbridge Island at 4 p.m., Bainbridge Island Review editor Brian Kelly reported. Power was reported out in Brownsville.

Several roads on the peninsula were closed because of trees that had fallen onto power lines: NW Holly Road between Lake Tahuyeh Road and Longhorn Drive NW, Bremerton; Northlake Way NW between Chico Way NW and Seabeck Highway NW, Bremerton; West Belfair Valley Road at West McKenna Falls Road, Bremerton; and NW Hintzville Road between NW Seabeck Holly Road and One Mile Road, Seabeck.

North Kitsap Fire & Rescue reported that Miller Bay Road is closed because of a downed tree and power lines. Detours are in place.

(For an updated list of closures, go to www.kitsapgov.com/press/inclement_weather.asp)

— Herald reporter Terryl Asla contributed to this report.

A 35-year-old woman was transported with serious injuries after a large tree slammed into her family’s home on Norland Court, near North Kitsap High School. Jody Matson / Poulsbo Fire Department

Red for pending, green for officer dispatched. After the March 1 wind storm, Sgt. Howard Leeming’s tactical computer screen is covered with icons. “And this doesn’t count another 25 or so that have already been dispatched,” he noted. Terryl Asla / Herald