Some dubbed it “Treenado.”

To others it was “Treemageddon.”

Whatever it’s called, the crazy high-velocity winds that tore through the forests east of Colville late in day on June 29 amounted to 15 minutes or so of sheer duck and cover terror.

Big trees – tamaracks and pines – toppled over, their massive dirt-crusted roots torn out of the ground. Many other trees were snapped high like breadsticks.

Power lines went down like dominoes. Limbs covered in dark beard moss flew through the air.

Two trees fell on the old log resort building at Black Lake. The tree-littered stretch of Highway 20 past Crystal Falls still looks like a hurricane blew through.

We usually don’t see extreme weather events like this. Not here. Not in the good ol’ summertime, anyway.

Hard hats off to the chainsaw-wielding residents. They worked all night, clearing debris and cutting the scores of fallen trees that blocked roads and driveways.

Same for the hardy Avista crews that labored for days, restoring power and gradually silencing the growl of propane-fueled generators that are pretty much a necessity for a near-nature life in the wilds.

Yet for all the sound and the fury, nobody apparently got hurt in the tempest.

And that may have been the biggest shocker of all.

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