Snowstorm leaves thousands in Flathead without power

Monday morning met Flathead Valley residents with the first fresh snow of the year, leaving some residents in the dark while outside was blanketed in white.

As many as 3,500 valley residents were without power Monday morning as a wet and heavy snow, and gusty winds felled a some power poles and trees fell across power lines, Flathead Electric Cooperative Public Relations Officer Wendy Ostrom Price said.

“We’ve got outages of varying sizes scattered across our service territory,” Ostrom Price said. “We’ve got downed lines, downed poles, trees on lines. We have a heavily-wooded service territory for the most part; it’s across the whole of our territory.”

Ostrom Price said the first outage call came at 3 a.m. Monday from the 30-mile stretch between West Glacier and Essex, where snowfall has caused the most outages. According to the cooperative’s online outage map, at noon Monday that area had between 200 and 499 members without power. Dozens of other outages were reported in the north valley area.

While Ostrom Price said the height of Monday’s outages reached 3,500, by noon crews had restored power to more than half, while about 1,427 members were still without power. 

The snowfall-induced restrictions also reached Glacier National Park, which temporarily closed Going-to-the-Sun Road between Lake McDonald and St. Mary due to weather. According to the park service website, the Sun Road is open for about 2 miles on the west side and one mile on the east side. 

Ostrom Price said although outages are being resolved, more may be reported as the storm continues. She said crews will be working throughout the day to alleviate outages. 

To check on outages throughout the day, visit http://outage.flathead.coop:8181.

Reporter Seaborn Larson may be reached at 758-4441 or by email at slarson@dailyinterlake.com.