Wind storm knocks out power for thousands in valley
Del Manicke assesses tree damage off Echo Chalet Road near Echo Lake on Wednesday morning. Wind gusts topping 50 mph caused multiple trees to topple in the area. (Casey Kreider / Daily Inter Lake)
Flathead Electric Cooperative workers repair a power pole and lines in this file photo. (Aaric Bryan/Daily Inter Lake FILE)
Damaging winds toppled trees and cut off power in some parts of the Flathead Valley on Wednesday as a strong winter storm entered the region.
Power outages mostly affected the Bigfork and Swan Lake areas Wednesday morning.
According to a warning from Flathead Electric Coop, high sustained winds beginning at 3:30 a.m. caused trees to fall into power lines and caused significant damage to electrical equipment. More than 2,000 Flathead Electric members were without power at one point, according to the coop’s online outage tracker.
“We are experiencing outages across our service territory,” the electric company stated. “Crews are responding, but progress in some areas will be slow until the winds die down. Please bear with us as we work to restore power as quickly and safely as possible.”
One tree fell across Montana 206 near Elk Park Lane, blocking both lanes of traffic for hours. The scene was finally cleared at 10:30 a.m.
Crews near Troy responded to multiple downed trees across Montana 56, as well.
A high wind warning was issued for the Flathead Valley through 5 p.m. Gusts as high as 70 mph were possible, the National Weather Service in Missoula warned. Wave heights up to 8 feet were possible on Flathead Lake.
“The cold temperatures and big waves may result in freezing spray around Flathead Lake,” the Weather Service warned in its forecast discussion Wednesday morning.
While conditions were expected to remain mostly dry in the valleys, Marias Pass along the Continental Divide was under a winter storm warning with up to 18 inches of snow possible. Blowing and drifting was expected to create dangerous driving conditions.
Following the initial blast of wind and snow, conditions in the valley are expected to become frigid. Lows for Thanksgiving Day will be in the single digits, with wind chills below zero for many locations.