Diane Anderson, left, observes the damage Thursday after a tree fell on to her brother's home and driveway on Harrison Avenue in Centralia.
With an entire landscape covered in snow, nothing but the trees on Thursday could be heard giving way to Wednesday's foot-plus of snowfall.
Snap. Pop. Boom.
Rain throughout the day ensconced tree limbs in ice, adding weight to already burdened branches and trees.
Jason Morgan was at the window facing his front yard when part of the giant white oak in his backyard came tumbling down the side of his house at 205 Harrison Ave. at about 1:15 p.m.
Luckily, it missed his garage and his neighbor's house, but it destroyed the wooden fence separating the yards, tore off a corner eave of his garage's roof, and rested heavy branches on the hood and cab of his 2004 Chevy Silverado in the driveway.
Morgan said he's never had to worry about the giant oak before in his 12 years spent at the home.
"It's always been really strong," he said. "It's always made it through all the windstorms."
Early Thursday, freezing rain downed lines and trees on Seminary Hill Road, Ham Hill Road and Centralia Alpha Road, specifically in the 1600 block.
Before noon, Centralia's public works closed Seminary Hill Road. Limbs were scattered across the road just east of the water plant and workers - who had been working nearly nonstop since Tuesday night, according to Centralia City Light Director Ed Williams - were sent home for a few hours to take a break.
Early Thursday evening, crews from the Cowlitz County PUD joined crews here, according to Williams.
The Longview area didn't get the freezing rain on top of snow like Lewis County.
About 200 City Light customers were out of power before noon. When a main feeder in town near Centralia College went down after noon, according to Williams, about 1,400 customers went without power.
Swaths of the county began losing power at around 4 a.m. Thursday after scattered outages Wednesday.
Countywide, nearly 45 PUD employees were working to correct power outages that have hit every part of the county, including all of Pe Ell and sections of Centralia and Chehalis.
The PUD said they will restore power as soon as possible. A specific time has not been set, and PUD dispatch warns if a resident has lost power they should prepare to be without electricity overnight.
Traffic lights on Harrison Avenue were knocked out for about two hours mid-afternoon Thursday.
By 4 p.m., crews had lines back working and about 400 customers remained without power.
Around 3 p.m. a heavy tree limb from a tree in Fort Borst Park came crashing down on the southbound onramp of Interstate 5 off Harrison Avenue. It hit no one.
Within 30 minutes a state Department of Transportation crew had the debris removed.
Trisha Lloyd, her husband Samuel Meza and their three young children - ages 10 months to 4 years - were dealt two blows by a crumbling Douglas fir in the Prairie Pines trailer park off 201st Avenue Southwest in Rochester: a tree limb through her trailer's window and another one punching a baseball-sized hole in its roof.
By the afternoon, Lloyd said, Meza had covered the holes with tarp.
Although temperatures were expected to warm up to 39 degrees, they never seemed to climb higher than 32 or 33.
The Riverside Fire Authority is preparing for the worst - but by 4 p.m. it was too early to tell what sort of unpredictable weather patterns would be unlocked between Thursday night and Friday morning.
City Light and other authorities are asking people to stay away from downed power lines.
Other roads that can include more problems before the freezing weather relents include Lincoln Creek Road, Michigan Hill Road, Teague Road, Kohse Road, Hyppa Road, Independence Road and Garrard Creek Road.
State Route 6 was closed at 1 p.m. Thursday between the west Adna area and Frances in Pacific County because of fallen trees and limbs. The highway reopened shortly before 6 p.m.
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Adam Pearson: (360) 807-8208 and twitter.com/ChronicleSirens
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Chronicle Reporter Kyle Spurr contributed to this report
