Get the most up-to-date outage information here: Outage Updates
A predicted high wind event arrived as forecasted on the morning of December 17. Last week’s atmospheric river created super-saturated ground conditions that allowed trees to easily be toppled by high winds today.
Flathead Electric Cooperative crews worked through the night on Tuesday to finish restoring a few outages in the Flathead Valley after earlier weather events. “Crews had just cleared the final outages when the winds arrived in Libby this morning, and continued down the Highway 2 corridor, sending unstable trees into power lines and immediately taking out electricity to about 3,500 of about 6,000 meters in the greater Libby area,” reflected Jason Williams, Chief Operating Officer.
The wind soon reached the Flathead Valley and had caused over 150 individual outages by Wednesday afternoon. The Co-op is aware of downed powerlines and trees throughout the service area.
Williams continued, “It’s critical that members do not attempt to take matters into their own hands and perform work around power lines of any size. Even our linemen can’t tell whether a line is energized just by looking at it. Although we greatly appreciate the many offers of help we’ve received, we ask everyone to stay patient and stay away from power lines, no matter what. When crews do arrive to work on damaged equipment, please give them the space they need to safely work.”
Over 30,000 of the Co-op’s 77,000+ meters were impacted by power outages. All the Co-op’s line crews and tree crews were working on outages at press time, and restoration work will continue into the night.
“During major storms we typically request assistance from neighboring utilities, but because this wind event affected much of the western U.S., many crews are responding to similar impacts in their own service areas, which limits the availability of additional help,” Williams continued.
Flathead Electric expects power to be restored in some areas later tonight, while other members may remain without service through the night and possibly into Friday. As strong winds continue, additional outages are possible. Many of the outages are being caused by trees falling from well outside the Co-op’s rights-of-way, particularly trees weakened by wind and saturated soils. Once power is fully restored, final system repairs from an event of this magnitude are expected to take several weeks.
“We know the lack of information is frustrating for our members,” Katie Pfennigs, Community Relations Manager, said. “Members should be aware that our outage map is not reflecting outage causes or estimated times of restoration because the damage is so widespread and that information is largely unknown at this time. If we are able to provide estimated times of restoration for specific areas of the Flathead Valley and for Libby, we will post that information on our website and on our Facebook page. We will continue our communication efforts into the night and share relevant information as it is available.”
Members can stay up to date, and learn more about preparing for and staying safe during power outages, at flatheadelectric.com/outage.
