‘Bolt’ of lightning? Tolar family, with nine-month-old, was ‘hunkered down’ for storm

Jen Bolt said she was safely “hunkered down” with her nine-month-old child in a bathroom inside her family’s home in Tolar when Wednesday evening’s thunderstorm blew through town.

Fortunately, they weren’t standing in the front yard watching the clouds.

“Two trees fell on my house,” Bolt said of the three-bedroom residence on Highway 377 in Tolar, where she lives with her husband, Jeremiah, and their child. “A tree in the front yard exploded, and a neighbor’s tree exploded also.”

Did the Bolts suspect that their damage could have been caused by a … lightning bolt?

Jen Bolt said she didn’t know what caused the tree damage. But she said that in the aftermath, the tree in her yard “looked like it flew apart.”

She noted that some of the debris struck their house, resulting in six holes of various sizes — one “the size of a trash can” — on their roof. After seeing that they needed to “hurry up and get it covered up” — to prevent more extensive damage inside the home from rainfall — they were able to obtain a used tarp to place over the holes. 

Jen Bolt said that a few of the people who ventured out after the storm, looking to help fellow residents in need, used chainsaws to cut through the downed trees and broken limbs around their home. She referred to them as “the wonderful people of Tolar … really awesome.”

Jen Bolt is employed at the U.S. Post Office in Tolar, which is at 9101 Highway 377. There were some early reports that windows at the Tolar post office may have been blown out or broken during the storm. But Lt. Josh Lane, the information officer for the Hood County Sheriff’s Office, told the HCN that deputies who viewed the post office after the storm did not report seeing any window damage. They did, however, report roof damage.