Although Flathead Electric Cooperative (FEC) must occasionally shut power down for system maintenance, most outages are unplanned and unavoidable. Of the unplanned outages to date this year:
- 201 can be attributed to weather related events such as wind causing trees and branches to fall on lines.
- 44 were human-caused. 17 vehicle vs. power pole incidents have been reported this year, along with accidental dig-ins to underground power lines, vandalism, etc.
- 530 were caused by animals. Squirrels are the usual suspects, but other animals cause interference as well.
