No fatalities, but lots of damage in Flathead

Power lines, trees and utility poles seemed to bear the brunt of what officials are saying is the worst storm to hit Northwest Montana in recent years.

Damage to property in Flathead and Lake counties was heavy and widespread, authorities said.

"Compared to what we're normally used to, I would call the damage moderate to severe," said Mark Peck, director of Flathead County's Office of Emergency Services.

The Flathead County Sheriff's Office responded to more than 100 calls relating to storm damage Wednesday night and Thursday morning.

More than 20 utility poles were toppled across the county, and downed power lines caused at least a dozen small fires.

"The storm was very widespread," said Peck. "It encompassed a lot of responses from area fire departments."

The Evergreen Fire Department fought a structure fire on Willow Glen Drive and Concord Drive, which Flathead County Sheriff Mike Meehan considered the night's most urgent emergency. Crews extinguished the electrical fire and saved the house.

"All the emergency services just jumped in and worked together," Meehan said. "The storm covered such a wide area so quickly."

The storm also blew the roof off the grandstand at Carpenter's Arena, caused some flooding around LaSalle Road when the storm drains couldn't keep up and knocked down 15 utility poles on Lower Valley Road.

There were surprisingly few accidents and no fatalities, Meehan said.

"Most of the traffic lights were out, but everyone was driving sensibly," he said.

The storm caused some havoc but did little damage to the critical infrastructure, authorities said.

"From that standpoint, it wasn't that large," Peck said. "Once it reached Kalispell, it had settled down a bit."

In northern Flathead County, the volume of the storm's damage seemed due more to the number of incidents than the severity of each one, authorities said.

The southern portion of Flathead County, especially Somers and Bigfork, was hit much harder, said Peter Flesch, a warning coordination meteorologist with the National Weather Service. Flesch was working with a team assessing damage from Polson to Somers.

Winds there gusted as strong as 100 mph, Flesch said, uprooting trees 30 inches in diameter.

The area around Polson in Lake County may have experienced the worst of the storm.

Stephen Stanley, coordinator of Lake County Office of Emergency Management, estimates hundreds of trees have been leveled.

"There was a huge amount of damage in terms of trees laid down," he said.

There were at least half a dozen cases of uprooted trees causing damage to homes, campers and trailers.

"It was a lot of little stuff," Stanley said. "But I can say that because a tree didn't come through my house."

The hardest hit section of Lake County was in a five-mile area around Rollins and Zelezny Bay, Stanley said.

Flesch was able to confirm there was a water spout on Flathead Lake that Stanley said swamped a 26-foot sailboat after it spun wildly out of control. Two people were tossed from the boat, and rescued two hours later. Neither were injured or taken to the hospital, according to officials.

Flesch was unable to confirm that tornadoes touched down near Polson, but did say the winds were strong enough there to completely uproot a 100-year-old cottonwood tree.

There were also no weather-related injuries in Lake County, Stanley said.

"Overall, considering the event, it could have been worse," he said.

Glacier National Park officials reported no damage to the park, though winds there reportedly reached 55 mph.

Authorities were still assessing the storm's severity Thursday, and were unable to assign a dollar amount to the damage.

Although public property - save utility poles and power stations - escaped major damage, homes were damaged across the Flathead and Mission valleys.

Insurance agents began filing claims for damaged property early Thursday. Jeff Andrews, an agent with State Farm Insurance in Polson, had received from 30 to 40 calls by mid-morning.

"Most of them have been fairly small, but we're getting a lot of them," he said.

Each claim was for between $1,000 and $7,000, he said.

"It wasn't the type of tornado that just destroys everything in its path," he said. "Nobody was forced out of their house."

Other claims, however, have been much larger.

Rick Smith, an insurance agent for Allstate in Kalispell, said his office is processing about eight claims worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

"These are major claims, with major damage to homes," he said. "There don't seem to be any small claims."

Smith has processed claims where roofs were torn off homes and docks in Flathead Lake were torn to pieces.

"This is the most severe weather damage I've ever seen," he said. "And I've been here 15 years."

Reporter Nicholas Ledden can be reached at 758-4441 or by e-mail at nledden@dailyinterlake.com