High winds cause havoc in Mineral County

ALBERTON - High winds whipped through western Montana on Tuesday evening and early Wednesday morning of last week.  Winds started to kick up late Tuesday evening, with reported gusts reaching up to 84 mph in some parts of western Montana.  

Downed trees were reported around Nine Mile, Petty Creek, and in Alberton, as well as in other parts of the county.  Power was also knocked out during the night.  Butch Larcombe, a spokesman for NorthWestern Energy, said that a downed transmission line near Alberton was fixed early Wednesday morning, and a larger outage of about 1,200 customers around Thompson Falls was repaired by the afternoon. 

Superior Schools were also closed on Wednesday due to the power outage.   Superintendent, Scott Kinney, said the call to cancel school for the day was made around 2 a.m. on Wednesday.  

“We lost power before midnight, I called Northwestern Energy and stayed on the phone with them.  Apparently, the whole county had lost power nearly to the state line,” he said.  

Superior school’s computer network and phone systems were out of commission, as well as the heating system.  School resumed on Thursday.