Strong winds uproot trees

The crashes came with plenty of warning.

Heavy wind through pine trees sounds a lot like an approaching train, sans the whistle.

Relentless gusts upward of 40 mph shook the Lake Tahoe Basin for more than three hours late Monday and early Tuesday, snapping tree limbs and rattling the nerves of not only pets and children but clear-headed adults and parents.

When it was over, it could have been much worse. For Fran and Michael Gayer, they're left wondering whether divine intervention played a role as to why their 80-plus foot lodgepole pine uprooted and sideswiped their Zephyr Heights home, just missing their bedroom.

A power outage on Sunday night was blamed on a combination of weather and an earlier incident.

Electricity was knocked out for 2,200 Minden and Gardnerville residents at 7:55 p.m. Sunday. Power was restored at 8:02 p.m., according to Sierra Pacific Power Co. spokesman Karl Walquist.

Walquist said a power pole fire on a 60,000-volt line Sunday afternoon on Heyborne Road north of Stephanie Way was caused by the weather.

"This happens early in the season if there's dirt on the insulators and we get a light rain," Walquist said. "It gets wet and provides a path for electricity to get to the pole."

The power line had to be de-energized, power was re-routed and then something else occurred three hours later at 8 p.m.

"Wind and rain were two of the factors involved on Sunday," he said.

Wind gusts clocked

Lake Tahoe Airport: 44 mph

DL Bliss State Park: 68 mph

Slide Mountain: 65 mph

Carson Valley: 66 mph

Carson City: 66 mph

Washoe Valley: 68 mph

South Reno: 82, mph

Loyalton: 70 mph

Source: National Weather Service