Road closures, wrecks result of wintry storm

The Daily Inter Lake

Road closures, power outages, and wrecks were the consequences of Thursday night's wintry storm.

West Glacier School and the Kalispell City Airport closed Friday because of conditions. Thousands of customers of Flathead Electric Cooperative were without power after lines were battered by wind and falling trees.

By Friday afternoon, some people were still in the dark, but not for lack of diligence by workers who kept going all night to make repairs.

Roads were closed by fallen trees and power lines on Montana 35 and U.S. 2 Friday morning.

Some drivers were no better match for conditions than power lines were. After 9 p.m., seven accidents without serious injuries were reported. A two-vehicle accident at the intersection of U.S. 2 and Montana 40 blocked traffic and injured people.

Four people called about a woman who rolled a vehicle in Columbia Heights. At least one driver was afraid to stop there because the road was so slick. The driver wasn't seriously hurt.

There were injuries at a rollover on U.S. 93 south of Whitefish Friday morning.

Trees toppled onto roadways on Montana 83, U.S. 93 near Somers, U.S. 2 near McGregor Lake, and on Montana 209 near Bridge Street. On Rocky Cliff Road, fallen trees were sprinkled on the roadway at 5:30 a.m.

Power lines fell on U.S. 2 near West Glacier, in Coram, and at McMannamy Draw.

A tree was suspended on a phone line above a house in Martin City. The line reportedly held until help arrived.

All those power-line problems kept electrical workers going through the night, according to Stephanie Wallace of FEC.

"There were literally thousands" of customers without power Friday, she said. Outages started at about 3 a.m.

Pockets of powerlessness remained by late afternoon in West Glacier, Essex, Rollins, Lakeside, and the North Fork, Wallace said. Most Marion and Kila residents were re-energized by mid-afternoon, she said.

"It was an event. We've got some hard-working guys. They didn't sit on their laurels," Wallace said.

She encourages people to call when a tree falls on a power line. Otherwise, the company has to send patrol crews out to find where the problem is.

She reminded people, too, to call the company if they encounter fallen lines. One man made her shudder when he talked about rolling up a line he found down. There is no way for people to tell just by looking if a line is live, she said.

Despite the problems, there were no reports of accidents or worse related to the outage.

"We sure appreciate everybody's patience," Wallace said.