Storm cuts power, makes driving tricky
Stephanie Gulick of Kalispell pulls her 3-year-old son Carson back to their house on Tuesday morning after taking her daughters to school.
A heavy, wet snowfall made driving treacherous Tuesday and caused numerous power outages, particularly in the Whitefish area.
New snow ranged from 5 to 9 inches, and in places rain fell on top of icy, snowpacked roads. Road conditions ranged from icy in the morning to slushy at midday to icy again by afternoon and evening.
Flathead Electric Cooperative estimates the storm impacted several thousand electricity customers across a broad area of Northwest Montana from Libby to the west, Whitefish to the north, northeast to Hungry Horse, southeast to Bigfork toward Swan Lake and points in between.
Bigfork schools, Swan River School and Trinity Lutheran School were closed Tuesday because of the snowstorm, but all other valley schools remained open. Whitefish schools were open although there was no bus service.
According to Marcia Sheffels, Flathead County superintendent of schools, schools should be open today.
During the day Tuesday, the Flathead County Sheriff’s Office received 35 calls related to downed power lines, toppled trees, power outages and sparking lines.
Flathead Electric spokeswoman Wendy Ostrom-Price said the utility had a couple dozen spot outages around 10 p.m. Monday night, then started receiving calls again at 2:30 a.m. Tuesday. Reports of outages have been steady since that time.
“Crews have been able to restore power to the majority of members within two hours or less,” Ostrom-Price said.
She said people can anticipate further weather-related interruptions in service.
The outages are due to heavy, wet snow and trees falling on power lines. Many types of trees in this area do not have tap roots and are not “frozen in” yet, so they topple easily.
Snow is not expected to continue into today, the National Weather Service predicted, but Kalispell residents should expect a high of 16 and a low of 3 below zero tonight. Thursday’s forecast is clear, with a high of 14 and a low of 7 Thursday night.
Snow depths from the storm ranged from 6 inches in Kalispell to 8-9 inches in Columbia Falls to 13 inches on Big Mountain.
According to the Montana Department of Transportation, drivers should expect snow- and ice-covered roads for the next few days.
Flathead Electric is aware of most outages, but people can still call to report them at 751-4449. If the line is tied up due to the volume of calls, try again later.
Ostrom Price stressed that people should never touch or drive over a power line, and if they see one to report it to Flathead Electric or contact a law enforcement agency. She also said to make sure addresses on homes and businesses are clearly visible to linemen and emergency responders.
For current school closure information, go to www.dailyinterlake.com/community/school_info or http://flathead.mt.gov/schools/closures.php.
The combination of snowfall and strong northeast winds is expected to create blowing and drifting snow in the northern Flathead Valley. Wednesday, Kalispell residents should expect wind chill values as low as -6 and north northeast gusts are expected to gradually shift to the northwest during the day. Wind is expected to gust at around 12 miles per hour in the morning, decreasing through the day to about six miles per hour, with some gusts as high as 20 miles per hour.