After five days on his own, Twister is back home.

That’s Twister, the horse, who broke loose during last week’s wind and rainstorm that also knocked out power to hundreds of Loomis Basin homes.

“He broke through the fence in a panic and couldn’t find his way back in,” said Dr. Susan Parry, a veterinarian who lives near Auburn Folsom Road.

Parry said the noise of the storm and the horse woke her up at 3 a.m. Wednesday morning, and by the time she got dressed, Twister was gone.

She sprang into action, printing flyers to post throughout the area, and notifying the sheriff’s office and animal control. She sent e-mails to all her contacts, and made calls to friends and fellow horse owners.

“As soon as the weather cleared up on Thursday,” Parry said, “there were people who volunteered to hike Folsom Lake Park, go door to door, and ride horses from Sterling Point through Rattlesnake Bar,” she said.

Each day, she said, more and more e-mails went out to trail runners and more posters and flyers were put up, but still there was no sign of Twister.

“On Saturday, when he had been gone four days, I was very discouraged,” she recalls.

But Parry and her friends didn’t give up. Sunday they searched vacant, open parcels in the vicinity, thinking the horse might have become tangled in wires or stuck in a creek where he couldn’t get out.

She finally got the call she’d been waiting for. Earlier Sunday morning, she learned, Twister had been discovered by Parry’s neighbor, Craig Jones, who had seen the flyer about the missing horse in Auburn.

“He was probably no more than one mile away,” Parry said. “He must have been in the woods there somewhere, hiding.”

The horse, which suffered superficial wire cuts, is exhausted.

“He’s tired, not eating well, probably still suffering the effects of that much stress, but brighter today,” said her grateful owner.

“I can’t thank people enough,” Parry said.

“I was just overwhelmed how everyone in Loomis and Newcastle and the horse community was so helpful,” she said. “People I had never met volunteered their time to search on foot, horseback and e-mail to look for him.”

The storm that spooked Twister caused plenty of chaos for residents.

According to Brian Swanson, spokesman for Pacific Gas and Electric, the storm that began Monday evening, Oct. 13, caused “41 outages impacting approximately 1,700 customers in Loomis … In Penryn (there were) 16 outages impacting approximately 800 customers.” He said strong winds brought power lines into the ground and poles and cross arms were broken.

Brian Fragiao, public works director for the Town of Loomis, said drains in town remained fairly clear during the storm. There was minor flooding at two different spots in town, and his crew was kept busy removing tree branches from public roadways.