CENTERVILLE -- Sara Dickes plans to spend today and Saturday, at least, working with her family to cut up the uprooted pine trees in her yard.
"Well, we can finally plant the maple ones," she said, trying to put a positive spin on the damage caused by Thursday's windstorm.
Dickes is among 16,000 Centerville residents who hunkered inside their dark homes while howling winds caused devastation from North Salt Lake to Ogden.
Damage was so extensive the county commission declared the county a disaster area Thursday evening. That allows the county to seek state assistance in repir of public infrastructure and removal of debris.
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, released a statement Thursday night that he had asked Federal Emergency Management Agency officials to "closely monitor available assistance" for Utahns.
The National Weather Service recorded winds at 102 mph in Centerville, 92 mph in West Bountiful, 86 mph in Farmington and 69 mph at Hill Air Force Base.
One man was critically injured in Layton after being hit in the head by debris while trying to fix a fence, said Layton Fire Chief Kevin Ward. He was transported to an Ogden hospital.
Emergency personnel received several calls regarding people injured by flying debris. Other emergency calls dealt with downed power lines, tipped over semitrailers and uprooted trees blocking traffic in streets.
Diane Townsend, business development director at Davis Hospital and Medical Center, said the hospital had only a few patients due to the windstorm.
"They were mostly scrapes, injuries and broken bones," Townsend said. "But the message we want to get out is we are definitely open and fully staffed."
Tiffany Burnett, spokesperson for Lakeview Hospital, said there were five patients admitted with minor injuries from the windstorm.
South Davis Fire Metro Agency Deputy Chief Jeff Bassett said his crews responded to three house fires, all caused by power lines. Layton and Syracuse fire agencies also responded to several house fires caused by downed power lines.
Dickes kept her three sons, ages 13, 10 and 9, home from school because she was worried about their safety. They used the wood-burning stove and put on extra layers of clothes to keep warm, as they played board games and built Lego creations.
They have enough food, water, candles and flashlights to handle a power outage that could last several days, she said.
The Red Cross opened emergency shelters for those who needed somewhere to stay Thursday night at the Centerville City Hall, 250 N. Main St., and at Legacy Junior High in Layton, 411 N. 3200 West. West Bountiful also opened its city building as a shelter for those who needed it.
The power outages could continue into today for some customers. As of 9 p.m. Friday, 24,000 customers were still without power in Northern Utah, half of whom were in Weber County.
Thursday began with all Davis schools in session; however, by the end of the day 28 schools were closed. Davis schools will be closed today and staff will assess damages, plus get schools and buses ready for Monday.
The wind also shattered windows in buses, caused roof damage to a number of school district buildings and uprooted trees.
"Our main focus is to make sure that our students and staff are safe," said Superintendent W. Bryan Bowles. "We know family have been affected by this storm, not only students who go to school, but also staff members who work in our schools."
Centerville city administrators and police said they were concerned about the safety of the children and ordered school closures by 7:30 a.m. Thursday.
City officials declared a local state of emergency because of the wind about 9 a.m.
Those winds sent 50- to 100-year-old pine trees toppling onto roofs, crashing into garages, pulling up sod and flattening cars.
Dickes, who runs a landscaping business with her husband, said pine trees have "shallow roots and big sails," and that is why they are the first to go in a windstorm.
The storm was different than the other windstorms Dickes has seen in the nine years she has lived in Centerville.
Centerville, which is at the mouth of a canyon, often has windstorms with gusts that range up to 100 mph. Thursday's event was different because of the duration of the storm and how the winds maintained consistent speeds, said Cory Snyder, the city planner.
The storm twisted trampolines across yards and atop trees. It also pulled up street signs, tossed traffic lights into traffic, punched holes into fences and yanked power lines, leaving thousands of Wasatch Front residents without power.
Semitrailers were forced off Interstate 15 and Highway 89 between Kaysville and Bountiful for many hours.
City and county officials spent Thursday afternoon assessing damages and seeing what needed to be cleaned up and fixed quickly in order to keep residents safe.
Davis County Commissioner John Petroff Jr. said the wind knocked down between 100 and 200 trees on the Davis Park Golf Course in Fruit Heights.
"It's hard to get out and do a count," said Petroff, who estimates the course is lined by about 2,000 trees.
The county will use jail inmate trusties to remove the trees and clean up the course, Petroff said.
A cost estimate for the damage to the course was not available.
Davis County Sheriff's Sgt. Susan Poulsen said dispatchers received 400 emergency calls from midnight until noon. A normal 12-hour shift sees 200 phone calls. Davis County fire, police agencies and public works facilities called in off-duty personnel to help with the number of emergency calls.
Second District Court in Farmington was closed due to the power outage, so the Davis County Sheriff's deputies who normally work security were on the road helping, Poulsen said.
Kaysville Fire Chief Brett Larkin said his crews, which are mostly volunteer, were kept busy working one call after another beginning at 5 a.m.
Centerville Mayor Ron Russell, who spent Thursday at they city's emergency operation center and traveling around the city to see the damage, said he plans to be out today helping his neighbors as soon as he clears his driveway of the pine tree that once stood in his front yard.
"I'll be getting the chain saw out of my garage so I can get into my garage," he said.
Standard-Examiner reporters Bryon Saxton and Jasen Asay contributed to this story.
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