Dale Sherman’s cows are running out of places to hide.

Vin Sherman, Dale’s brother and neighbor, lost two mature trees in his yard to last Thursday’s windstorm, then watched his brother’s cows duck under one of them Sunday when the second windstorm hit.

The trees that used to serve as a wind buffer for structures and farm animals joined others that met similar fates during a wild and windy stretch of late-winter weather on Whidbey Island.

North and Central Whidbey got hit the hardest during the first wind storm before South Whidbey got the brunt of the second.

“The second one, it was kind of a quick slam, then it was done and over with,” said Capt. Jerry Helm of Central Whidbey Fire & Rescue.

The fire department responded to 12 calls over a two-hour window starting just after 2 p.m. Sunday before the storm died down (compared to 23 Thursday).

Wind gusts were recorded at 46 mph in Coupeville and 59 at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island in Oak Harbor.

Three days earlier, powerful gusts started before dawn and lasted till early afternoon.

The windstorm’s peak also coincided with an extreme high tide, leading to flooding and water over the roadway in certain places, particularly in Oak Harbor and Freeland.

Island County Public Works crews responded to 50 events on Whidbey last Thursday with downed trees into power lines and over roadways causing the biggest headaches.

The same crews responded to only 18 events Sunday, said Matthew Nienhuis, the county’s maintenance and operations superintendent.

“It was mostly trees down with wires involved,” Nienhuis said.

The worst incident Sunday happened at Harrington Lagoon Road, where a large tree fell and knocked down a power pole and transformer, leaving several residents with no way in or out, Nienhuis said. It took until Monday morning to re-open that stretch of road.

Nienhuis said he wanted to remind people to stay away from downed power lines. Don’t approach them and do not cut a tree with lines on it, he said.