Fall snow falls

An early-October snowstorm drilled sections of Phillips County last Tuesday, dropping anywhere from 1-inch at the Port of Morgan and nearly 14 inches in Zortman, leaving many county residents without power and shutting Dodson School for the entire week.

NorthWestern Energy spokesman Butch Larcombe says about 7,000 customers were without power from Havre east to Dodson,

Northwestern Energy estimated that about 7,000 customers were without power from Havre (which received over 15-inches of snow) to Dodson, according to a story from the San Francisco Chronicle. Power at the Havre Daily News - sister paper of the Phillips County News and the press that prints this paper each week - was without power until Tuesday afternoon and in Dodson on Wednesday, Mayor Teresa Cole sent out messages on AlertSense and Facebook on Wednesday night telling residents to not to use any water as power to the pump house was down (a problem which would persist until fixed the morning of October 6.)

Power workers from both Northwestern and Big Flat Electric Cooperative scrambled across the county trying to repair power lines downed by the heavy, thick snow that fell on Tuesday. Big Flat Electric reported on Tuesday that a major Western Area Power structure that feeds power to our Harlem substation was down, adding that Hays, Lodgepole, Landusky, Zortman, South Malta, Turner, and Hogeland areas will remain without power until the following day. On Thursday at 5 p.m., power had been restored by Big Flat to Turner, Hogeland, Hays, Lodgepole, Landusky, and Zortman and by Saturday night, 95-percent of the service area's power was restored and said the crews - with assistance of other co-op crews - would continue to work on getting the remaining five-percent power.

"Thanks to all our members, our linemen and also to co-op crews from Fergus Electric, Sun River Electric, NorVal Electric, Marias Electric and Red Rock Power for their continued work during this destructive storm," a Big Flat Electric post on social media read.

Power throughout the City of Malta sputtered off on an for much of Tuesday and Wednesday causing several offices around town to close, including the PCN's. Though many in the City were powerless for parts of the day, The Great Northern Steakhouse reportedly "packed" with customers, Albertson's Grocery Store stayed open without delay and both Westside Self Service and Horizon Resources remained open and catered to customers from as far away as Harlem.

Total snowfall in Phillips County included five inches in south-east Malta; two inches in Whitewater; 12 inches in Landusky; 14 inches in Zortman; 3.5 inches in the City of Malta; two inches in Garfield County's Mosby reporting location and one-inch in Valley County's Saint Marie reporting station, according to the National Weather Service.