Mother Nature whipped herself into a frenzy Thursday with high winds whipping across Whidbey Island causing power outages and road closures. A wind storm that began Thursday afternoon knocked down trees, tore at homes and brought down electrical and television cable wires.

According to Whidbey Island Naval Air Station weather service, wind speeds peaked about 2 p.m. at 51.6 miles per hour on the the north end of Whidbey Island. A Bush Point resident with a weather station reported winds of 61 miles per hour.

Some of the worst wind damage occurred along Saratoga Road, about two and half miles outside of Langley. About 3 p.m. Thursday, trees began falling across the road. Fallen trees and limbs were piled well over six feet high, obscuring the road from view and blocking traffic. Trees fell for a hour or so before they stopped.

Island County Fire District 3 volunteers warned people still in the area “to run when they hear a cracking sound because more trees are falling.”

The area was recently clear cut, with a tree buffer along the road. When the winds hit, the buffer trees took the brunt of the wind and fell.

FD3 personnel closed Saratoga at Lone Lake Road on one end and in Langley at De Bruyn. It remained closed until midday Friday.

Falling trees also closed Brooks Hill Road at Bayview, Coles Road and East Harbor Road.

The only reported case of major structural damage came from the Wheel Estates mobile home park outside Langley. Lillian Brons, who had driven to Oak Harbor Thursday morning with her husband, returned to her house in the early evening to find that the aluminum roof covering her front porch had been ripped off and blown into her back yard.

“It was quite a surprise to come home to,” she said.

Brons said the damage was covered by her homeowners insurance.

Puget Sound Energy crews were dispatched to restore power to some 30,000 customers in eight counties Thursday night.

According to Tim Bader, spokesman for PSE, the peak outage occurred at 1 a.m. and “most were concentrated in Island, Whatcom, Kitsap and Skagit counties.”

At 8 p.m. there were 18,000 customers without power in Island and Skagit counties. By mid-morning Friday, 300 customers in Island County were still without power, Bader said.