Community cleans up after storm

By ERIKA KIRSCH Western News Editor

Almost all the power has been restored in Libby and the surrounding areas after a battery of storm activity on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Between 9 p.m. on Wednesday and 1 a.m. last Thursday, a section of residents from the middle of Libby to the south of town lost their power. Approximately 1,500 households were without power during that time frame, according to John Desch, director of Libby operations at the Flathead Electric Co-op, Inc. West of town, another 1,500 households lost electricity from 9 p.m. on Wednesday until 5 a.m. on Thursday, Desch explained.

Employees worked through the night and morning attempting to restore power to the customers that lost electricity. There are 6,500 meters within the Libby district, Desch said.

After the majority of power was restored, crew members "did individual isolations," he said. "They isolated all night long to get back into power."

Crews continued to work to restore the power, however after meters were isolated and restored, there were still 300-400 customers still without power. By Friday afternoon, the majority of electricity had been restored, Desch said.

"There are still some customers out there, maybe one or two, that have to fix their own equipment," Desch explained.

It is still too early to tell whether or not the Libby Drive-In Theatre will be rebuilt after the Wednesday storm and winds of 70 mph ripped the 60-foot screen from its wooden braces and spewed pieces onto the playground equipment in front of the screen, according to owner Bert Wilson.