MISSOULA — Five days after that monster thunderstorm tore through Western Montana, NorthWestern Energy continues getting trees off powerlines and restoring electricity to those still in the dark.
How did this storm measure up to others and was Northwestern Energy prepared for it? We met up with NorthWestern Energy community relations manager for Missoula Todd Rahr on Monday to get some answers.
“So, originally we had 27,000 customers out of power as of Wednesday night when this thing hit, and we're now under 1,000 with the hopes that we're going to get as many of those back today as we can get,” Rahr told MTN’s Jill Valley. “So it really comes down to debris, just inability to get to, you know, certain houses that's keeping us from getting those folks on."
"You know, I think we were as prepared as we could be, knowing that we have crews all over the state that could come here on a moment's notice,” Rahr said when asked if he thought the utility was prepared to handle the severity of the storm.
“I think what we weren't prepared for was the absolute damage that existed out there because, you know, those are things we can't control,” Rahr continued. “And those are things that we had to get out of the way before we could really restore some of this power. So, that was something…I think again, you just can't prepare for it. But, you know, this is gonna be a good thing to remember in case we ever have something like this again.”
We asked Rahr about how Missoula’s large urban forest factored into the extensive storm damage around the city.
“Yes, I mean, that, that was part of it. And then obviously a lot of these distribution poles are made out of the same material, which is wood,” Rahr explained. “And so, the interesting thing was seeing how many of them just snapped in two versus, you know, went down. So that's a different type of fix right there. So those are the type of things that just kept things going slow and not getting to them as quick as we could. So, there were some parts of town that had power, then they lost it again.”
MTN talked with Rahr about why some people on one side of the street never lost power, while on the other side of the road some customers were in the dark for days.
“Is it just a patchwork…it depended on where the trees fell or where the damage happened,” Rahr explained “And I think that, you know, when some of those things happened, you know, it could have been some, some cause that is pretty normal. But we got most of those people on pretty after an emergency call.”
“But there's also times when you the mast on the top of your house, you know where the, the line connects to your house or your meter base gets pulled out of your house in an event like this,” Rahr continued. “And if that happens, then you actually have to have an electrician come fix those before we can ever energize your house again. So, we've, we've actually started to see a lot more of those today. And we're just encouraging everybody to go out, take a look and if those look like that's the case call an electrician and we'll get you on as quick as we can.”
“I actually was in Kalispell when this happened and came back through town, coming through north side of town and, you know, I was like, ‘oh, it's not so bad’ but the more you move south, oh, my gosh, it was incredible. And, I think those are the things that caught us -- just how devastating this was and how hard it was going to get to move, whether it be a tree in the road or on top of a line,” Rahr said of the devastation the storm brought. "And not only that. When you thought it could be a simple fix on a power pole, it ended up being a crack in the power pole and then you had to replace that even though it looked like it was okay.”
We asked Rahr what NorthWestern Energy has learned from the storm.
“I think what we learned on this one was, you know, if it if it looks like it's gonna be this big again, really rallying the resources out there is probably number one and then, you know, have crews on the wait to come on over here,” he told MTN. “But again, this was just such an anomaly that I don't think that you know, we could prepare for another one like this again. But I, I tell you, you know, we see a system like that building up t certainly is gonna create some PTSD and we're gonna be ready to go when we need to.”
Water will is still available at Fort Missoula Regional Park off South Avenue for residents still without power. Potable water for drinking and non-potable water is available for livestock only. You will need to bring your own containers for water. Bagged ice is no longer available.
The Montana Red Cross has closed its shelter at the Missoula Elections Center.
