Winds roar across northwest Montana

Strong winds whipped through Northwest Montana on Wednesday, with high-elevation gusts reaching more than 70 miles per hour and downed trees knocking out power to hundreds of people in the Essex area for several hours.

One tree came down on an occupied mobile home near Hungry Horse but no one was injured.

Flathead Electric Cooperative spokeswoman Wendy Ostrom Price said 298 members lost power for just over three hours Wednesday afternoon after trees brought down a power line in the area.

Electricity was restored at around 4:30 p.m.

A gust of 77 miles per hour was recorded Wednesday along U.S. 2 southeast of Essex.

Up the North Fork, an 82-mile-per-hour gust was recorded at 1 p.m. at an elevation of 6,500 feet south of Wedge Canyon.

In Kalispell, the maximum recorded gust was 45 miles per hour — powerful enough to knock down trees and cause some small, localized outages in the valley.

As Lincoln County grappled with flooding in and around Libby and Troy, downed trees briefly knocked out power to 182 customers in that county.

Reporter Samuel Wilson may be reached at 758-4407 or by email at swilson@dailyinterlake.com.