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High winds bring power outages to Northwest Montana

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The weekend’s strong wind gusts caused damage from trees and debris falling onto vehicles and buildings across Missoula and the Flathead.

High winds coupled with cold temperatures also canceled events in the city and prevented people from going outdoors.

The windy weather in the left a number of residents without power in the Flathead Valley.

A number of downed power lines due to fallen trees across started causing outages Friday afternoon.

High winds remained in effect throughout Friday night into Saturday morning.

Especially hard-hit areas included Montana Highway 83 near Swan Lake and Montana Highway 35 south of Woods Bay.

Flathead Electric Cooperative crews had to close portions of Highway 35 to work on downed power lines.

Swan Lake resident James Bullington says he lost power Friday evening. He says he and his wife had to jump in their car to stay warm.

“Well we got in the car early this morning we about froze to death, it’s colder inside then it is outside, so we got in the car and cranked it and got warm in there,” Bullington said.

Thousands of people were without power at the height of the outages.