Christine Schott’s heart was “still racing” hours after powerful winds swept through Cowlitz County, knocking out power to thousands and sending a tree crashing Sunday morning into Schott’s house on Columbia Heights.

“My adrenaline must have been so intense. I haven’t been able to relax, even though I know everybody’s safe,” she said Sunday evening. “I can’t worry anymore, but I can’t calm down.”

The winds started roaring in the early morning hours Sunday. The National Weather Service recorded a wind gust of 39 mph at the Kelso airport shortly before 3 a.m., with winds steadily blowing at nearly 30 mph. Falling trees and limbs eventually knocked out power to 12,000 Cowlitz PUD customers.

“The gusts up here were scary,” Schott said. “I just kept praying, ‘Please God don’t let anybody get hurt.’ ”

Shortly before 5:30 a.m., she awoke with a feeling that something was about to happen. Seconds later, she heard “a humongous gust” followed by “the most godawful noise I’d ever heard.”

A tree slammed onto the roof of her 13-year-old daughter’s bedroom. Schott screamed and ran to her.

Her daughter, Abby, and a friend, Shelby, were OK — but there was “a nice waterfall in her bedroom,” Schott said.

Schott said no one was injured, probably because the bulk of the tree broke off and landed near a neighbor’s hedge instead of on a room occupied by Schott’s son, Jordan, and a friend, Joey.

“If that part had stayed intact, I think it would have crushed my son’s roof,” she said.

Not so lucky were two trucks — the Schotts’ Chevrolet pickup and a Ford belonging to a friend, Celeste Yazdani, that her husband, Chris, was fixing.

The cab of Yazdani’s pickup was smashed a little and there’s other damage, Christine Schott said. Their own truck was buried by the tree. “The cab is completely caved in and a limb impaled the engine,” she said.

Downed trees and limbs caused most of the power outages, PUD spokesman Dave Andrew said. In the Hazel Dell Road area south of Castle Rock, a tree blocked the road and pulled down overhead power lines, he said. Customers lost electricity in parts of Longview, Kelso, Carrolls, Castle Rock; the whole town of Ryderwood; much of Silver Lake, Toutle and Kid Valley; and from Ariel to Cougar.

Andrew said line crews worked all day Sunday and planned to work into the night to repair lines. By 6:30 p.m., all but 250 customers had power restored.