Storm cleanup in full swing
<p>A downed tree takes up most of the front yard of the house at 131 Sleepy Hollow Road on Monday morning in Evergreen.</p>
<p>A downed tree blankets a van at 131 Sleepy Hollow Road on Monday morning, The owners were waiting for an insurance adjuster before they began cleanup efforts.</p>
<p>Scott Jones of Flathead Electric coils wire in an Evergreen yard on Monday morning. Utility crews were busy restoring power after Saturday night's storm</p>
The Kalispell area continues to clean up after Saturday night’s storm.
“We’ve had quite a response from citizens to call in and make a list of branches that need picked up. Plus in our own parks we had quite a few go down,” Mike Baker, director of Kalispell Parks and Recreation, said Monday.
City crews spent the whole day trying to clean up after the storm.
“We’ve had our full crew out working on branches all day today and probably will for the next couple days,” Baker said. “We have quite an extensive list started and we’ll go down through that. It will take us a while to get all the way through it.”
The city generally is responsible for “boulevard trees” not on private property. That includes trees in parks, natural areas, greenways and along roads between the sidewalk and the curb.
Kalispell residents with branches down can drag them to the edge of the road with the broken end out and call the parks department at 758-7849 to get them on the list to be picked up.
“Then we can come by with the chipper or if they’re too large just saw them up. For branches outside the boulevard, if they’re pulled to the boulevard then we’ll take care of them along with our own,” Baker said.
Firefighters with Evergreen Fire Rescue were finally slowing down and getting some rest Monday after spending Saturday and Sunday cleaning up after the strong storm that hit Evergreen especially hard.
Downed branches, trees and power lines kept firefighters busy until about 4:30 a.m. Sunday.
“We had about 20 of our own guys and some guys from Smith Valley, West Valley, Creston and Columbia Falls who came out and helped,” fire marshal Ben Covington said. “We’d like to say thanks to the surrounding departments who helped out.”
Firefighters got a couple hours sleep and were back at it again by 7:30 a.m. Sunday, with trees and branches and power lines still coming down.
“We were just kind of constantly busy all day Sunday,” Covington said Monday. “I don’t think we’ve had any calls out today.”
The storm cut electricity to 10,600 Flathead Electric Cooperative customers.
Power was restored to all customers within 24 hours, according to Flathead Electric spokeswoman Wendy Ostrom-Price.
Most customers had electricity restored within three to 12 hours after the storm.
Saturday’s brief but fierce storm featured wind gusts up to 61 miles per hour and .77 inches of rain in just 22 minutes.