Sudden Storm Hits Valley

WAITSBURG - Just as some residents in the Touchet Valley were watching the news about Hurricane Irene making landfall on the East Coast on Sunday, they were suddenly taken aback by a local weather event of their own.

After late afternoon clouds gathered over Waitsburg, winds picked up out of nowhere and took huge clouds of dust from the dry fields with them, towering high over the city and surrounding countryside.

The dust storm quickly reduced visibility to only a few hundred yards and whipped off summer leaves, branches and, in some cases, trees in repeated gusts of debris across city streets.

Some longtime residents said they hadn't seen anything like it in this area for decades. The edge of the storm was quickly followed by a series of lightning strikes that set telephones ringing across the valley and sent fire fighters from Waitsburg and Dayton investigating.

By one account, more than 100 lightning strikes hit the area between Prescott and Pomeroy, though most were in Garfield County, where the strikes ignited 10 fires that burned between 5,000 and 6,000 acres of tall grass, brush and crops.

"Evacuations of four residences occurred due to fire danger," according to a release from the Garfield County Sheriff 's Office. "Several outbuildings, sheds and unoccupied residences were threatened as well."

Waitsburg was unscathed, except for several downed trees and a thin layer of dust that settled on cars, homes and yards. The power surged twice in town.

"We got lucky," said Jim Callahan, Walla Walla County Fire District 3 chief.

Columbia County fire officials reported one fire on Nichols Road 11 miles northeast of Dayton. The 30- acre stubble blaze was across the street from a residence but didn't pose an immediate threat, fire chief Rick Turner said. The cause of the fire is unknown.

Two positively charged strikes hit Columbia County Sunday night, including the Hartsock Grade close to the Last Resort camping area, but the heavy rains that accompanied the storm put that fire out quickly, officials said.

The rain "helped us considerably," Turner said.

Not as lucky, Garfield County had to call in state resources, prompting Washington State Patrol to call in crews from Grant, Thurston and Lewis counties. By Monday morning, however, the fires were under control and fire fighters were mopping up.