Another storm blows through Whidbey

After a brief breath, another windstorm whomped Whidbey Island on Sunday.

After a brief breath, another windstorm whomped Whidbey Island on Sunday.

“This one came on hard and then it was over before we knew it,” said Oak Harbor Fire Deputy Mike Buxton. “It was a little like a hurricane passed over.”

The relatively short duration of the storm that struck North Whidbey didn’t bring down the number of trees it might have if it had raged all night, Buxton said. “We dodged a bullet.”

But it did keep first responders busy for the second time in four days following Thursday’s first big windstorm of the year. Firefighters at North Whidbey Fire and Rescue responded to nearly 30 calls in the space of four hours Sunday as wind gusts were recorded at 59 mph at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island.

Sunday, volunteers manned all the stations in preparation to handle the wind wallop. That made for quicker responses. The department dealt with sizzling downed lines and debris in the roads.

South Whidbey was dealt the biggest blow on the island with at least two homes crushed by fallen trees, according to South Whidbey Fire/EMS chief Rusty Palmer, whose district responded to 27 calls.

Two cars also were heavily damaged by fallen trees, Palmer said.

The fallen trees created havoc for utility crews. For a brief time, all of South Whidbey was without power Sunday, said Akiko Oda, a spokesperson for Puget Sound Energy.

Wind gust speeds were recorded at 40 mph in Clinton and 46 mph in Coupeville.

Tidal conditions Sunday weren’t as extreme as Thursday when flooding also was a problem in coastal areas on the island, particularly in Oak Harbor and Freeland.

And, at least on North and Central Whidbey, the winds didn’t seem to pack the same sort of sustained punch Sunday as they did three days earlier.

Vin Sherman, in fact, was in his front yard in Coupeville Sunday trimming branches from a tree that had fallen from Thursday’s storm.

His brother’s cows, meanwhile, were taking cover from the wind under a second tree that had fallen on his property Thursday.

The Whidbey News Group’s Justin Burnett and Ron Newberry contributed to this report.