Despite the blazing sunshine around today, strong easterly winds were blowing through the Cascade passes and foothills. Generally wind gusts were 30-40 mph, with gusts as high as 60. For specifics, we had a report of a gust to 61 mph in Snoqualmie, 60 in Enumclaw and 58 mph in North Bend. We had an unofficial estimated gust of 70 mph in Cumberland.

The high winds also spread west to Kent, where the Kent Fire Department said they responded to over two dozen calls related to high winds, such as trees and power lines down.

In Kent, a massive Fir Tree sliced open Bob English's mobile home and cut his kitchen in half. Just 15 minutes before, Bob was in the kitchen drinking coffee. He told KOMO 4 News he's glad he didn't go back for a second cup.

"I'm counting very many blessings," says English.

Bob says the winds woke him up and he kept watch from his living room window, but when the tree hit, the power went out.

Bob didn't realize how bad it was until daylight. "It took the kitchen stove and drove it right down to the ground...everything that was underneath was crushed right to the frame," says English.

He has until Monday to get his stuff out and find a temporary home - his trailer is condemned.

The same goes for his neighbor's house. Not one, but five Cottonwoods came down, pulling their enormous root balls up with them. There were lots of direct hits but some luck too.

One fir fell the right way -- into the street and not Jim's house.

"It would have gone right through my house says, Jim, who asked us not to use his last name.

But right across the street from Jim was more bad news. Cedars crash landed. The Good news? They're just resting on the house - no damage. Not all the damage was obvious.

A power surge triggered a fire and blew Ty Barrett's thermostat off the wall, zapped his TV and destroyed his VCR. He says if it wasn't for Romeo barking he might have slept through it.

"He's Romeo the Hero," he said.

The same power surge got Joyce Henning's place too.

"It burned, it was coming out this way and this way," says Henning. Black soot stretches up to her ceiling. The digital thermostat and its wiring is all charred.

When the surge hit, it knocked out power. It was so dark Joyce couldn't find anything to put out the fire. The Fire Department put it out but 5 minutes later, Ty Barrett's condo was on fire.

"It's a good thing the fire department was here; I couldn't find my fire extinguisher in the dark," says Barrett.

Puget Sound Energy reported that at the peak of the storm, about 4,000 people lost power in parts of Enumclaw, Black Diamond, Covington and Maple Valley.

What Caused The Winds?

The deal here is that there is strong high pressure to our east as cold, dense arctic air sinks into the Rocky Mountain areas from Canada. We then have relatively low pressure offshore -- although it's really just kinda normal pressure, but relatively speaking, it's lower than what's east.

Mother Nature likes to keep pressures equal so, air is flowing from the higher pressure to the east to the "lower" pressure to the west. The Cascades act like a pretty good barrier for most, but the wind then just fights its way through the mountain passes and gaps, so cities right along those gaps, such as North Bend, Gold Bar, Cumberland, Enumclaw and Snoqualmie, get the brunt of the wind.

The wind spreads out as it heads west, so while we're also saw gusty winds closer to Puget Sound, it wasn't as strong.

The peak of the "storm" passed by midday, and winds were expected to continue decreasing through the Friday night hours.