Power Outage in Ekalaka, MT

Frequent wind gusts 40 to 50 mph producing significant blowing snow resulted in widespread whiteout conditions. Most state highways were closed including 12 (between Miles City and Baker), 7 (between Wibaux and Ekalaka) and 323 south to Alzada. Schools were also closed across the area. In addition, many power outages occurred due to high winds and ice build up on power lines from fog and freezing drizzle.

Snowfall of 10-13 inches along with power outages were reported across the area.

Considerable damage occurred in the town of Ekalaka. The door from a newspaper building was blown off its hinges. An 80 foot tall 36 inch diameter Cottonwood tree was blown over along with numerous trailers being overturned. There was tree damage and power lines down all over town resulting in power outages. Other damages included blown down distribution poles and broken windows. In addition, four hangers and an enclosed private aircraft at the county airport suffered severe damage.

Snowfall amounts around 12 inches were common across the southern portions of the county. Trees were downed and roads were closed. There were also widespread power outages.

A spotter 1.7NNE of Boyes reported power outages from about noon to 7pm. A tree was blown down partially across a road. While traveling down the road, the spotter's windshield was broken by the tree.

At 535 pm, a tornado touched down 5 miles west of Albion, MT in far southeast Montana. The tornado was estimated to have remained on the ground for 15 minutes, traveling approximately 5 miles to the east northeast. The tornado produced periodic damage along a 100 yard wide path. The worst of the damage was located one mile north of Albion. A National Weather Service Cooperative Weather Observer located just north of Albion reported 50-60 trees that were snapped off, some as large as 2 feet in diameter. Two calves were also killed in this vicinity. Before the tornado lifted, 1.5 miles northeast of Albion, the tornado destroyed several grain bins, snapped off 4 power poles, flipped a semi-trailer on its side and produced minor damage to a nearby home. The tornado was classified as an EF-1, with estimated winds of 86-109 mph at its strongest point, one mile north of Albion.

Ekalaka received 8-10 inches of snow along with blizzard conditions. Many livestock and new born calves were buried in the snow. Records show $1,049,659 in losses for livestock in Carter County. This figure does not include what would be an average death loss during calving season, this was above and beyond the usual. This number is from about 140 livestock producers in the county. About 60 more producers probably had losses, but did not report or may not have hit the threshold for reporting. The average for producers reporting was about $7500 of loss. It was very stressful for ranchers with back-to-back storms with snow so deep there was no place left to put livestock. However, there were no serious power outages and no lives lost or serious injuries to residents. |In addition, road damage was severe with the county losing two bridges due to flood damage as the snow rapidly melted due to a quick warm-up after the storm. The flooding also did a lot of damage to fences as one rancher reported $80,000 worth of damage to fences alone.

A few power outages were reported.

Wind damage with power poles downed

Power outages with lines down with 5-6 inches of ice and snow on the lines. 10 inches of snow in the hills. Around 2-3 inches on the ground in Ekalaka with snow and wind gusts to 20 mph.