Fallen tree blamed for power failure

By GWEN ALBERS Western News Reporter

A dead tree that fell Sunday on a power line between Troy and Yaak caused an outage that stretched the 92 miles from Bonners Ferry, Idaho, south to Happy's Inn.

Thousands were without electricity for up to more than three hours, said Michael Brock, regional manager with Bonneville Power Administration in Spokane.

At about 4:30 p.m. the wind knocked down the tree, which had stood about 25 feet from the Bonneville Power right-of-way, Brock said.

"We had some pretty high winds," he said.

In Libby, about 5,000 were without power, said John Desch, manager of Flathead Electric Cooperative in Libby. It effected the entire system that stretches north to the 25 mile-marker on Highway 37 at Warland, west to mile-marker 25 along Highway 2 at Cedar Creek and 15 miles east of Libby.

The outage lasted 68 minutes, Brock said.

About 900 customers within Troy city limits and along Iron and Callahan creeks were without power, said Tracy Rebo, deputy clerk with the city.

Another 1,600 served by Northern Lights in the communities of Yaak, Moyie Springs, Bull Creek and rural Troy also were without power, said communications director Elissa Glassman.

Brock said that outages in the city of Troy and areas served by Northern Lights lasted for 3 hours and 10 minutes.

Bonners Ferry was without electricity for more than two hours.

Utility workers initially did not know what had caused the outage, Brock said.

"We weren't able to automatically isolate it," he said. "We had to do it manually by opening switches."

Bonneville Power eventually determined the location of the outage within a 30-mile area. He did not know if the transmission line was along a road or in the woods.

A crew found the fallen tree and removed it.