Damaging winds knock out power to Northwest Montana

More than 10,000 Flathead Electric Cooperative members were without power overnight Monday into Tuesday morning as damaging winds battered the region.

According to the Co-op, over 10,300 members were affected by outages during the windstorm. Power was restored to all but 3,800 members by Tuesday afternoon.

“We are all hands-on deck to restore power as quickly and safely as possible,” the Co-op stated in an outage update. “Strong winds have mostly subsided, but they were strong and persistent for a long period of time which has caused multiple challenges for our crews. Some areas were repaired only to go back out again due to additional damages.”

Some members could be without power into Wednesday, the Co-op warned. Mutual aid was requested to assist with bringing the power back on, however much of the Pacific Northwest was impacted by the winds as well, the Co-op noted.

West of Kalispell toward Libby was among the hardest hit areas. Three line crews were in the Marion area, where every feeder out of the substation was down. Crews were also working in the Ashley Lake area east of Kalispell, and in the Hungry Horse and Essex areas south of Glacier National Park.

Glacier Park temporarily closed Going-to-the-Sun Road at Lake McDonald due to numerous downed trees along the scenic highway.

Power was also lost on Blacktail Mountain near Lakeside.

According to National Weather Service data, a 63 mph gust was recorded at Glacier Park International Airport on Monday, with sustained winds of 36 mph. A gust in Kila was clocked at 64 mph.

The weather station on Mount Aeneas in the Swan Mountains recorded a gust of 94 mph.

Lincoln County recorded gusts of 67 mph.