Winds snap power lines, trees
<p>Evergreen Fire Rescue Chief Craig Williams and Capt. James Boyce clear a tree that fell and blocked East Evergreen Drive on Tuesday morning. The tree hit a power line, causing a temporary power outage for houses east of U.S. 2.</p>
<p>Danny Johnson of Flathead Electric Cooperative removes a downed power line from the middle of U.S. 93 near Wyoming Street in Kalispell on Tuesday morning. High winds caused the line to detach from a power pole. </p>
A powerful windstorm with gusts up to 70 mph knocked trees down and left more than 1,400 Flathead Electric Cooperative customers without power at midday Tuesday.
Reports flooded in to law enforcement dispatchers about trees and power lines down across the valley, including a power line that landed, arcing, across both lanes of U.S. 93 just north of Idaho Street when a utility pole was damaged by wind.
Among the other victims of the wind were a dog kennel and boat cover in Kila and a trampoline, which a police officer reported was blown into power lines on East Center Street in Kalispell.
Trees were knocked down throughout the county, including one that fell on a vehicle on Forest Drive in Evergreen and another that fell on a house in Coram.
The National Weather Service reported an 18-inch-diameter tree that was snapped by the wind and fell on a camper trailer in the Ronan area.
Gusts of up to 70 miles per hour were measured near Kila, where sustained winds reached 45 miles per hour. Evergreen had a gust of 65 miles per hour.
Despite the widespread damage, there were no major injuries caused by the storm, according to Lincoln Chute, the fire service area manager with the Flathead County Office of Emergency Services.
“It was kind of weird because it was very widespread, in downtown Kalispell, Creston, Coram, West Glacier, Columbia Falls,” Chute said. “There wasn’t a path.”
Chute said he knew of one vehicle accident caused by the storm, but said there were only minor injuries and he was unsure if the victims were even transported to the hospital.
Downed trees were the main culprits behind power outages that built in number before reaching a peak of 1,454 Flathead Electric Co-op customers at 12:38 p.m. Of those, roughly 600 were along Montana 40 between U.S. 93 and U.S. 2, while around 500 were in Evergreen.
According to Flathead Electric representative Wendy Ostrom-Price, all eight of the company’s regular service crews were out working to restore power.
“It’s not typical that they’re all out at the same time, but when there’s a storm it can happen,” Ostrom-Price said.
The peak of the outages affected only about 2.5 percent of the utility’s customers. The vast majority of those who experienced outages had their power restored by 3:13 p.m.
The first outage was reported at 11:34 a.m., and all but 14 customers had their power restored by 3:21 p.m. Power was restored to the last two customers by 4:50 p.m.
“While all outages are significant to us, relatively speaking, this wasn’t a real serious situation,” Ostrom-Price said. “In some bigger cities it can be hours or days before power is restored, but that’s not typical for us.”
The last notable power outage happened Feb. 21, when 1,164 customers lost power after a car struck a utility pole.
Tuesday’s storm came during a wind advisory that had been issued by the National Weather Service roughly one hour before it swept through the valley.
According to meteorologist Dan Zumpfe, who works at the Missoula office of the National Weather Service, the storm was part of a Pacific storm system that will continue to influence weather through the weekend.
“Along the leading edge of the system was a fairly vigorous cold front which, as we anticipated, brought some pretty strong southerly winds,” Zumpfe said. “As the cold front came through, that’s where we experienced the greatest winds.”
He said the system would influence the weather for the next week or so, with several storms lined up in its pattern. Another cold front is forecast for Thursday afternoon and still another over the weekend.
“We’re getting a series of storms coming in, but they’re not all going to look and feel the same way,” Zumpfe said. “The next one may have a slightly weaker front, especially in the Kalispell area. One big theme about this storm pattern is that it will increase the mountain snowpack.”
The characteristics of these Pacific storm systems are different depending on what time of year they come through.
“The earlier we have it in the spring, the less damaging it happens to be,” Zumpfe said. “It’s getting to the time of year where the angle of the sun plays into the strength of the cold front, and can be stronger and stronger through the summer. But they are more common this time of year than they are in June.”