Ceiling collapses during thunderstorm

The sky was falling throughout the Inland Northwest during a severe thunderstorm Monday evening – and, in some cases, more than the sky.

Alerted to trouble by a blaring fire alarm, a janitor at the Department of Social and Health Services building in the 1300 block of North Maple stepped out of the bathroom she was cleaning to find the waiting room had become a wading pool – the ceiling caved in and a gushing torrent of rainwater fell. It was no fire.

“It sounded like a huge waterfall,” said Tanja Merriman, who for a year and a half has cleaned the DSHS building and decided Monday evening’s storm was the most exciting moment of her tenure.

A thunderstorm that brought nearly an inch of rain to the area blew through Spokane County and eastern Lincoln County on Monday, dropping hail that in some places coated road embankments like an early winter’s wet snow.

Hail-covered roadways near Reardan, Wash., and standing water caused minor traffic delays around the region, according to the Washington State Patrol.

Several hundred people were without power following the storm, but service was slowly being restored, Avista officials said. Reports of several downed power lines arcing and dancing in roadways came into various agencies in the storm’s wake.

A deluge of water flooded many Spokane streets, such as a massive pond that formed near the location of the old toll booths on the Maple Street Bridge.

Cars apprehensively approached, then barreled through the collected water, but for one Spokane driver, the depth proved too much.

“I got stranded in the worst spot possible,” said Ellen Hess, whose 1980-something Jetta stalled about 50 feet away from the growing puddle. After a few minutes at a dead stop amid the speeding traffic on the Maple Street Bridge, Hess coaxed the Jetta across the concrete, and it sputtered to the closest gas station.

“I’m just going to let it sit here,” she said, noting the same trouble befell her car last winter. “This is really frustrating. I’m only six blocks from home.”

The storm caused a quick temperature drop, and gusty winds knocked down some branches in the area, said National Weather Service meteorologist Greg Koch.

Before Monday’s storm, the region was 2.5 inches below the normal amount of precipitation. The extra rain Monday helped improve that statistic.

“It was certainly beneficial and helpful,” Koch said.

Back on North Maple, cleanup at the flooded office building will take awhile.

Her hands in latex cleaning gloves, Merriman stood in the rain and watched as firefighters used giant squeegees to push the nearly 4 inches of water out the front door, with bits of insulation creating a soupy mess.

“It really flooded in there, didn’t it?” she said. Thunder still sounded above her head, and television news crews refused to raise their live broadcasting antennas, fearing lightning strikes.