The western Montana windstorm on Wednesday, Dec. 17, kept emergency personnel and linemen busy as nearly 200 calls rang out for downed trees and power lines, leaving 3,866 Mission Valley Power customers without power. 

Strong winds whipped across central and western Montana last week, with gusts reaching 23 miles per hour in Polson, according to the National Weather Service. Damage was reported from Ronan to Bigfork, with the worst hitting Finley Point and Rollins, said Mark Clary, emergency management coordinator for Lake County. 

Clary explained that Lake County Dispatch typically receives fewer than 100 calls a day, but the storm caused nearly double that. At least 60 calls were for downed trees on Wednesday, Clary said. 

“Between that and the utilities, the electrical lines down, there was quite a bit,” Clary said. “They were coming in so fast and furious that we were just putting them on lists and getting to them as fast as we could.” 

Clary said there were several areas where people were driving over power lines. He witnessed it often and said people “think it’s safe and it’s not.” 

Trees fell across Highway 93, 35 and 83, causing a temporary closure on Highway 35 near Fulkerson Corner. According to Polson Rural Fire’s Facebook post, a large tree fell across the road with power lines involved. 

Zachary Conko-Camel, the general manager of Mission Valley Power, stated on the company's Facebook that crews worked overnight to restore power, and the last customer was reconnected at 3:30 a.m. on Dec. 18. 

“Many outages resulted from trees falling outside MVP's rights-of-way, especially those weakened by the wind and saturated soils,” Conko-Camel stated. “After complete power restoration, it will take some time to complete final system repairs and cleanup.” 

Hundreds of outages occurred in Kings Point, Rocky Point and Pablo. A Finley Point transmission line was taken down by trees, resulting in 1,565 customers losing power. The Yellow Bay corridor was the last to have power restored at 3:30 a.m. 

There were also significant outages in southern Lake County, with MVP reporting more than 150 outages along Mission Creek, St. Mary’s and in Jocko Canyon, nearly 200 in the Moiese Valley and around 90 along Duck Road near Charlo.   

According to Conko-Camel, MVP's next steps are to continue a system-wide damage assessment and clear vegetation and debris from the affected circuits. 

“Everybody was busy. But everybody did what they were supposed to do, and I thought it went very well for the amount of damage that had happened,” Clary said. “Everybody worked together and got it fixed.”