Work continues on storm recovery

Three days after the end of a record-breaking early season snowstorm that hit Havre and surrounding areas, power companies are still restoring power to those without it and several city parks remain closed until further notice.

A NorthWestern Energy spokesperson reported Wednesday morning that 9,000 customers had lost power in north-central Montana as a result of 13 inches of snow falling Monday through Tuesday.

Spokesperson for NorthWestern Butch Larcombe said that as of Thursday afternoon, about 1,100 customers were still without power, “with outages of varying sizes scattered from Havre to Dodson,” with the largest outages in the Fort Belknap and Harlem areas.

“We have a number of crews working in that area today and we hope to make significant progress but can’t offer a solid estimate when service will be restored, Larcombe said. “Much of the this area is very rural with widely scattered customers. It is also an area where our system was heavily damaged in terms of poles on the ground or poles damaged.”

Larcombe said that in the area between Havre and Dodson, more than 350 poles were knocked to the ground and another 200 or so with enough damage that they need substantial repair to function properly. Making those repairs is our biggest challenge, he added.

Larcombe did not respond by printing deadline this morning to a request for an update through today.

The storm knocked out 915 meters, Bethany Chinadle of Hill County Electric said in a statement Thursday afternoon. Hill County Electric restored power to the majority of customer Wednesday, Chinadle said.

“We are currently expecting to have all residential power restored no later than the end of the weekend,” Chinadle said.

The list of parks closed due to damage from the storm is Memorial Park on Fifth Avenue, Pepin Park, Deaconess Park, Rotary Park, Elks and North Elks, S Curve Park and U.S. Bank Park. The parks will be close until further notice.