State of disaster declared

A state of disaster was declared Friday for the Blackfeet Indian Reservation and in Glacier and Lincoln counties in response to a series of winter storms that dumped record amounts of snow over portions of northwest Montana this month.

A state of disaster authorizes National Guard response and state funds to assist with community health and safety once local resources have been expended.

“This winter storm has proven extremely damaging to roadways, railways, and Montanans relying on access to critical community infrastructure,” Gov. Steve Bullock said of the declaration. “Thanks to strong partnerships at the local and state levels, communities are keeping their residents safe as record amounts of snow move through our state.”

In Lincoln County nearly 4 feet of snow has piled up, causing a portion of a roof to collapse at Troy’s Bull Lake Fire District station. Some Troy residents were without power for nearly 24 hours following the storm.

Lincoln County declared a state of emergency earlier this week, and the towns of Libby and Troy have each drafted their own, individual state of emergency ordinances.

Libby’s draft ordinance for a declaration of snow emergency called the recent event “unprecedented” causing “unhealthy, unsafe and unsustainable conditions.”

“Driving’s been horrendous,” said Brandon Holzer, sergeant of patrol for Lincoln County. “The roads are terrible. There’s snow everywhere.” According to Holzer, all Lincoln County sheriff’s deputies are on call, but he said it is up to the community to make good decisions if they decide driving is necessary in these conditions.

So far, no injuries or fatalities have been reported as a result of the road conditions, but Holzer said “if you don’t need to go anywhere, don’t.”

Troy Mayor Darren Coldwell said the state of emergency gives the town the opportunity for two additional mills for snow removal expenditures. As of now, the costs are adding up with the snow plows working overtime and the cost of fuel for equipment.

The cost isn’t the only issue piling up.

“We’re at a point right now where we have no place left to put the snow, and we don’t have the equipment to move it,” Coldwell said. “You can plow snow all you want, but you’re just moving it around if you have no where to put it.”

Issues with power outages continued in Troy on Friday and continued low temperatures in Eureka delayed school schedules and forced bus operations to shut down, according to Lisa Oedewaldt, department of emergency manager of Lincoln County.

Oedewaldt said crews are still working to remove snow from government buildings and roads.

The National Weather Service on Friday released its unofficial reports for the total snowfall for Lincoln and Glacier counties from Feb. 3-6.

In Lincoln County, Troy received 28-33 inches of snow during the storm, and Libby was slammed with 36-41 inches. In Glacier County, East Glacier measured 62.5 inches and St. Mary was digging out from 64 inches.