Cleanup from snowstorm continues in area

Though crews worked throughout the weekend to restore power, some people in the area were still without electricity as of this morning, NorthWestern Energy spokesperson Butch Larcombe said.

Meanwhile, roads are gradually being cleared on Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation in the Bear Paw Mountains.

A week after a record-breaking snowstorm dumped up to a foot-and-a-half of snow in some spots on the plains and 30 inche s of snow in the mountains, much of the reservation’s roads have been cleared of snow, Jacintha Four Souls, an office assistant with the Rocky Boy Road Department, said today.

Four Souls could not provide an exact number of roads that still need to be plowed, but she said most of the main roads have been cleared.

“We’re pretty clear right now,” she said. “ I think we are just working on personal driveways right now.”

People can contact the Road Department at 395-4490

Some 9,000 NorthWestern customers — households, businesses and others — lost power during the record-breaking snowstorm last week, about 265 people remain without electricity, Larcombe said. Most of the customers without power are east of Havre in communities such as Harlem, Dodson and on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation.

Larcombe said 360 distribution poles went down in the storm, of which 189 have been replaced.

“So essentially we are rebuilding our electric system in some of those areas and it is very time-consuming,” he said,

Larcombe said the frustration customers are feeling is understandable.

People who are experiencing power outages can reach NorthWestern Energy at 888-467-2669.