Wind storm wreaks havoc in Havre area

A major wind storm blew through Montana from the West Coast Wednesday, causing some extremely high wind gusts and some major damage in the Havre area.

The wind pulled the roof off of the Vande Bogart Library at Montana State University-Northern and slammed the roof off a building on U.S. Highway 2 being used by Big Equipment Co. into power lines, causing a power outage.

NorthWestern Energy - the power outage webpage for which is not available due to the company being unable to keep it updated due to the large number of outages - is dealing with multiple outages.

"The extreme winds on Jan. 13 impacted NorthWestern Energy's customers across Montana, from the east to the west," spokesperson Jo Dee Black said in an email this morning. "The wind caused damage such as trees or other material in lines, downed power lines and in some cases, outages when the wind slapped power lines together.

"Crews worked late into the night to respond to and repair known outages in north-central Montana," Black continued. "Some of that work included repairing three downed power poles in the Carter area.

"Crews began working at daylight this morning to continue repairs and patrol lines to assess damage," she said.

The wind also knocked down trees and branches, including into power lines, in Havre.

The Chouteau County Sheriff's Office reported this morning that a tree was blown down in Big Sandy and power lines started a fire on Mountain View Road, but no other damage has yet been reported in northwestern Chouteau County.

Liberty County Commissioner Larry Hendrickson said the wind blew some garbage cans around and damaged trees in that county, but no major damage had been reported as of this morning.

Blaine County Commissioner Frank Depriest said no major damage has yet been reported in that county either, although he has heard of some trailers moved or damaged and he has seen shingles lying on roadways.

Questions about the Vande Bogart Library were referred to Northern's Physical Plant director, who was not available at the time Havre Daily News called and had not yet returned a request for comment by printing deadline this morning.

The Corman building on U.S. Highway 2 that had its roof blown into power lines was the third building being used by Big Equipment in four years. Its original location burned to the ground in December 2017, with a new building opening there in 2019.

In December of that year, a shop the company had been using west of Havre also burned, a total loss.

The commercial building it was renting to replace that shop was the one that had its roof blown off Wednesday.

Extremely high winds

National Weather Service meteorologist Tom Pepe in Great Falls said the winds came from two separate systems that both started off the Pacific Coast, blowing through Washington - and causing significant damage and power outages there - on through Montana.

He said the highest wind in Montana Wednesday was at Judith Peak, with a 95 mph gust.

Other recorded gusts included 81 mph at Goldstone north of Rudyard, 80 mph gusts at both Chester and Fort Belknap, a 78 mph gust in Havre and a 71 mph in Hingham and 68 mph in Rudyard.

Pepe said the Alberta Clipper brought high winds to the region, but they have been higher. He said the January record for Havre was 90 mph set in in 1961.

North-central Montana also saw a significant windstorm in February of last year, he said.

He said windstorms like the area saw Wednesday are rare, but not completely uncommon.

"Once every few years a storm that comes through (raises winds like that), Pepe said.