Storm, wind causes widespread power outages

High winds, heavily forested areas and mild weather came together to cause power-outages and fire troubles in Libby on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.

Flathead Electric Co-op experienced 13 weather-related outages during that night, and according to the Co-op’s relations officer, Wendy Ostrom-Price, Libby had another outage when a driver hit a power pole six miles south of Libby.

Libby Volunteer Fire Department Assistant Chief Steve Lauer and Lincoln County Sheriff Roby Bowe could not confirm that, but did mention the problems the high winds had caused.

“There was a severely burned section of power line this morning near mile marker 41,” Lauer said. “Another power line was brought down by a tree on Snowshoe Road.”

The line down over Highway 2 posed enough of a problem that Lauer’s crew stopped traffic and rerouted cars on Farm to Market Road via Hammer Cutoff.

A stretch of the burned line was on a transformer, and part of the line reached over the highway to a residence. 

However, most of the problems were caused by the weather.

A lack of a prolonged cold snap, very little burn this fire season and high precipitation means that trees are much easier to knock over with high winds. That was the case in Libby and in Kalispell. 

“The mild weather is actually working against us,” Ostrom-Price said. “Tree roots haven’t frozen yet.”

Of the Co-op’s 48,000 customers, 2,000 were without power for a period after the high winds. Whiskey Hill had some affected residents.