Nasty storm wipes out power to thousands in NW Montana

by SCOTT SHINDLEDECKER
The Western News | September 27, 2024 7:00 AM

A storm with high winds, heavy rain and lightning knocked out power to thousands of people in northwest Montana and northern Idaho Wednesday evening.

The storm rolled through Troy at about 6:30 p.m. while city councilors were deciding if they would hire a new police chief.

While the meeting room went dark momentarily, a generator brought power back to the facility. Councilors eventually elected to hire Travis Miller as the new chief.

Wind knocked down several power poles that left more than 10,000 without power Wednesday night and early Thursday morning.

Libby and Troy public schools cancelled classes for Thursday. Outages were also reported in the Yaak and Thompson Falls.

According to power outage maps, more than 3,100 Flathead Electric customers were without power at noon Thursday. Nearly 12,000 Northern Lights Electric Cooperative customers were also without power.

According to a social media post early Thursday by Northern Lights, crews were working to clear downed trees, restring downed wire and replace broken power poles.

The utility also said it was waiting on the Bonneville Power Administration to restore power to the regional transmission circuit serving the area from Sandpoint to Libby.

It was impacting all NLI members served off substations from North Sandpoint through Bonners Ferry, the Yaak and Troy, Montana. The utility said it anticipated this coming back in service in the next several hours and restoration efforts on NLI owned lines serving the area could be finished.

Additionally, the BPA owned transmission line spur serving the Priest River Substation has been damaged and NLI was waiting on the BPA to complete repairs there as well.