MISSOULA — Update: 3/13/20, 7:23 PM via FEC:
"Although crews have repaired multiple outages and restored power to many members, the outage count has continued to climb, reaching 3,328 members impacted at this time. The winds have continued to blow as hard as we’ve seen all day. Unfortunately, until the winds subside and we can get ahead of them, we expect the situation will get worse as outages are occurring much faster than we can repair them right now.
We anticipate that we will have many members without power throughout the night and into tomorrow. We understand how difficult it is to be without power, but we are asking members to prepare for prolonged outages. We will continue working straight through this storm to get power restored as soon as we can. Thank you for your continued patience and concern for our crews."
For the latest update visit this FEC page specifically designed for this wind event.
According to Flathead Electric Coop's outage map, over 1,000 people are being affected by power outages from Whitefish to Flathead Lake.
High wind continues to snap trees over power lines causing these widespread outages across the northwest.
The Montana Department of Transportation lists MT-35 as emergency travel only, and incident reports of trees and power lines over roadways have been coming in all day.
Road conditions throughout the northwest have also been deteriorating throughout the day.
High wind has been blowing falling snow around, causing areas of poor visibility.
West of Kalispell on US-2 and down MT-28, roads are now reported as scattered snow and ice.
High wind and snow will continue to impact travel Friday night and Saturday morning.
For the latest road conditions visit:
WINTER WEATHER RESOURCES:
- Live interactive radar
- Montana webcams (MDT site)
- Road Conditions (MDT site)
For FEC outage map click here.
