Gary Lawson

This tree toppled in front of a home near Nampa.

BOISE -- A fast moving wind storm knocked down trees, blew down power lines and caused havoc on area roads Monday afternoon.

The National Weather Service reports a high wind advisory remains in effect until 10 p.m. this evening for parts of Ada, Elmore and Owyhee counties. The wind advisory for earlier this afternoon has expired.

Idaho's Chief Meteorologist Rick Lantz says wind gusts of up to 52 miles per hour were reported in Boise, 50 mph in Parma, 49 mph in Caldwell and visibility in Nampa got down to less than one-quarter of a mile in Nampa. Blowing dust near plowed fields made driving extremely difficult in some areas.

Lantz says the high winds moved into eastern Oregon around 5:30 p.m. and reached Boise by around 6:30 p.m. At last report, the stormy weather was moving toward Elmore County.

High winds and poor visibility may be responsible for two seperate crashes involving semis on Interstate 84 near milepost 32 - the Middleton exit. Idaho State Police responded to crashes both the east and westbound lanes around 6 p.m. Two people were sent to the hospital with minor injuries. One crash involved eight vehicles, while the other involved three vehicles. Traffic was backed up on the interstate for hours during the evening commute.

Idaho State Police were also called to a second semi-truck crash after 6 p.m. This one a rollover at the intersection of 12th Avenue South and 14th Street South. Several lanes of traffic were blocked.

At 7:15 p.m., Idaho Power spokesman Russ Jones reported that 9,500 customers across southwest Idaho had lost their electricity due to the storm. He said there were 43 seperate events stretching from Midvale to Caldwell, and Emmett to Boise. The biggest individual outage is 2,500 customers in the Meridian/Kuna area. Part of the Boise Towne Square Mall was also without power. Our Alyson Oüten went to mall to go shopping after her home lost power, only to learn that Macy's was closed.

Jones says they had every conceivable type of outage possible - from blown transformers - to trees falling on power lines - to blown down lines. He says all available personnel is out work to restore power to their customers. No word on how long that will take, but he expects crews to be working well into the night.

Some Star residents were bombarded by tumbleweeds during the storm. Many of them gather on the home of Mike and Keri Mendoza, covering up from their patio to the upstairs balcony. Some helpful neighors assisted the couple in removing the tumbleweeds.

Keri Mendoza

Tumbleweeds piled high up on this home in Star Monday afternoon.