FARMINGTON -- Windy conditions were the cause of traffic delays here as Legacy Highway was expected to remain closed through the night Sunday as crews worked to removed downed power lines and towers that sprawled across all lanes of traffic near Lagoon.
"We hope to have it open in time for the morning commute," said Vic Saunders, a spokesman for Utah Department of Transportation Region One.
He said the highway opening would depend upon how quickly utility company employees could work through the night to restore their equipment.
And Utah Highway Patrol spokesman Sgt. Greg Lundell said that problem wasn't even the biggest of his roadway headaches.
He said Interstate 80 near the airport was experiencing numerous problems, also because of downed power lines.
Wind gusts reached 76 miles per hour at Salt Lake International Airport and in Centerville, which were the hot spots for the state during the windstorm.
Both of these gusts were recorded at 4 p.m. Sunday, according to the National Weather Service/Colorado Basin River Forecast Center.
"We're having a little adventure," was how Rocky Mountain Power spokesman Dave Eskelson described the situation of 12,000 customers who remained without power early Sunday evening.
He said the two worst cases in the Top of Utah were in Eden, where 2,400 customers had no power, and in Riverdale, where 1,500 customers were without power.
Both of those areas were restored by 9:30 p.m. A few hundred remained without power in Ogden, he said.
"We're going to be cleaning up for quite a while," he said Sunday evening.
In Box Elder County, a couple of traffic accidents were blamed on the weather when motorists hydroplaned because of fresh rainfall on the roads.
A dispatcher for the county said no one was seriously injured in those accidents.
A spokesman for the National Weather Service/Colorado Basin River Forecast Center said it would take a few hours to describe all the problems that came about when wind gusts began at 4 p.m. Sunday.
Forecaster Mike Conger said the wind gusts were caused by thunderstorms.
He said power lines and trees were down throughout the Wasatch Front.
"We've had a lot of reports of 60 miles per hour," he said, adding that a cold front Sunday night would cool temperatures and temper the wind.
Several monitoring stations in Bountiful reported gusts of 64 miles per hour Sunday afternoon.
In west Ogden and on Ogden Peak, the gusts were measured at 61 miles per hour. Ogden Hinckley Airport reported 53 mile per hour gusts.
Promontory Point, Sherwood Hills and the Farmington bench all reported gusts of 51 miles per hour.
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