Many still without power as restoration efforts continue

Electricity was restored Thursday morning to about half of the Flathead Electric Co-op customers who lost power during Wednesday’s windstorm, but some outages could linger through Friday.

According to an Electric Co-op outage update, crews worked through the night and were able restore power by Thursday morning to about 8,000 of the more than 16,000 members who lost power.

Members restored were mainly in the areas of Libby, West Valley, Hungry Horse, Bigfork and Columbia Falls, which were the first areas reported hit with winds and trees downing power lines.

As of Thursday afternoon, numerous trees remained down, along with broken power poles and debris. Power was still out for about 6,000 homes in the Echo Lake and Swan Lake areas, south of Lakeside along the west shore of Flathead Lake, near Smith Lake west of Kalispell, along U.S. 2 between Libby and Kalispell, and in the West Glacier region.

“Clean-up efforts continue in order to restore power to those remaining without,” the Electric Co-op noted in the update. “This will be ongoing at least through [Friday.]”

Four, four-man crews from out of valley were expected to join Flathead crews Thursday to assist in the effort. Two additional four-man crews responded Wednesday.

“We appreciate this mutual aid, as other northwest co-op’s have been experiencing widespread outages due to the storm as well,” the Flathead Electric Co-op added.

Besides linemen, the co-op dispatched tree-trimmers, servicemen, meter and substation technicians and others to assist in cleanup and restoration efforts.

“The focus remains on repairing damage from the largest outages as we hope to restore power to the largest number of members we can at one time,” the co-op stated.

Northwest Montana was battered by extreme winds Wednesday morning as a Pacific storm moved across the region. Damage from the storm was widespread, according to reports complied by the National Weather Service in Missoula.

Traffic on U.S. 93 south of Lakeside was temporarily blocked after power lines came down across the highway. Power lines also blocked Montana 83 north of Swan Lake. Downed trees temporarily blocked both lanes of Montana 35, and in Thompson Falls a number of large trees fell across Prospect Road.

The top wind gust recorded in the Flathead Valley reached 63 mph east of Kalispell near Echo Lake. Gusts of 50 mph were recorded at Glacier Park International Airport, at Creston and along the Finley Point area of Flathead Lake.

Mountain locations saw gusts of more than 100 mph.

The highest wind gust recorded in the state was a 125 mph at the top of Mt. Sentinel in Missoula.

A backcountry avalanche warning expired Thursday, but conditions were still rated as considerable.

“The most recent storm came and went like a 12-car pile up. Sudden, loud, with lots of carnage and whiplash left in its wake,” the Flathead Avalanche Center warned in its forecast Thursday.

A widespread cycle of large natural avalanches occurred Tuesday and ended abruptly Wednesday morning, and large and dangerous slabs remained likely in the high terrain.

More seasonable weather will last through the weekend, with a shot of mountain snow likely Friday and Sunday.

The National Weather Service says a big weather change for the Northern Rockies is likely late next week as Arctic air finally makes its way into Montana.