Scott Swanson
A brief thunderstorm left a big impact Tuesday afternoon, April 22.
The storm, which lasted only about 15 minutes left Sweet Home buried under a blanket of white M&M-sized hail, splintered at least two trees and knocked out phones, Internet service and power at Sweet Home High School.
It began about 2:30 p.m. with a downpour of hail that filled streets and rain gutters, and knocking blossoms and newly formed leaves off trees.
Within a few minutes, the first bolt of lightning struck, followed by a second that hit a tree in a yard at 1124 18th Ave., across the fence from the Sweet Home High School auto shop as students watched.
Cole Thompson, 17, said he and other students were about 30 feet away when the lightning hit a tree in the yard owned by the Currey family.
“We were standing outside, because that’s where the cars are that we were working on in class,” Thompson said. “The lightning struck way back and we were kind of looking over there. A little bit of lightning came down, you could hardly tell, and then the whole tree comes apart. Crack! It was ridiculous. Very, very loud. I still have a headache. My ears are still ringing an hour later.”
One limb of the tree landed on the chain link fence between the yard and the high school. District maintenance employee John Wiles, who was on the other side of the building when the lightning struck, brought a chainsaw to cut the limb that was lying across the fence.
School District Facilities Director Dave Goetz said the storm knocked out Internet access for the high school, as well as phone service to the high school, certain district offices and parts of “a couple of other buildings throughout the district.”
“The damage was really centered around the high school,” he said.
He said several “sand fuses” blew and staff intentionally cut power to the school. Pacific Power workers got the fuses fixed after the storm ended at about 2:45 p.m.
He said phone and Internet service was restored Thursday, but the fire alarm system at the high school was still on the fritz Thursday afternoon, forcing staff members to patrol the school “and monitor the halls.”
The parts for the system were installed Monday.
“The damage was more extensive than we at first knew,” Goetz said.
Lightning also damaged a tree in the baseball field parking lot and Goetz said a professional tree trimmer was called in to take down “a couple of branches that appeared to be in danger of falling, for safety reasons.”
Students reported seeing lightning enter Pam Duman’s English class.
“We all saw it,” said junior Jakob Hiett. “We were all looking out the window, admiring the force of the hail, when a large bolt jumped from one of the metal supports on the window down to a grate on the floor.
“As soon as we saw the big flash, there was a huge roar of thunder that sounded like a pop. Then Mrs. Duman told every one that they could move farther away from the window if they pleased.
“It was really exciting.”
Goetz said he wasn’t knowledgeable about the classroom incident, but he said there was plenty of other evidence of lighting damage.
“It definitely kept the Technology Department busy, getting everything fixed,” he said.
“We didn’t lose all power like we did over winter break. PP&L were here for hours and hours and hours during winter break. This time they had us going again in a pretty timely manner. We truly appreciate the time and effort they put in helping the community. When you don’t have electricity, you don’t think they’re doing a lot, but boy, they do.”
PP&L spokesman Tom Gauntt said about a dozen separate outages were reported, affecting about 30 customers.
“They were all kind of concentrated right there in that area,” he said.
Another lightning strike sheared off a 4-foot by 18-inch slab of bark and otherwise damaged a large Douglas fir on the South Hills Trail between Canyon Creek and Elm Street.
The tree was hit “just like a corkscrew,” said Sweet Home Public Works Superintendent Pat Wood, who noted that city workers, including himself, “got caught in (the storm) and got hammered.”
“It goes clear to the top. It blew off some 7- to 8-inch limbs about 20 feet long,” he said of the tree. “It’s got some big, dangerous limbs hanging off of it.”