Strong winds cause widespread damage on Blackfeet Reservation

Associated Press

BROWNING, Mont. (AP) - Officials are assessing the damaging following a wind storm this week that destroyed two homes and damaged 55 others on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation.

The storm, which started Tuesday morning and lasted through early Wednesday, delivered 75- to 90-mph winds and at least one gust clocked at 110 mph.

The American Red Cross provided hotel rooms for the two displaced families, one from Heart Butte and the other from the Starr School area northwest of Browning.

The Heart Butte home, a doublewide trailer, was "completely leveled," said Mark Keller, Blackfeet disaster and emergency services director. "Plum down on the ground."

Both families fled before their houses collapsed.

The Starr School home consisted of two side-by-side trailers running north to south. The western trailer blew into the eastern trailer and demolished it, Keller said.

"It was scary to everybody up here," he said. "Some people braced their walls from coming in, and they could feel the walls moving."

Damage reports continued to arrive Thursday from Babb and East Glacier, and ranged from broken windows to trailer homes pushed slightly off their pads by the wind.

Officials with the state Disaster and Emergency Services Division were in telephone contact with the tribe Thursday.

When damage assessments are complete, the agency will help determine whether the tribe is eligible for state or federal disaster assistance, DES spokeswoman Monique Lay said.

Tribal officials were concerned about damaged structures' strength during more windy weather in the forecast.

The National Weather Service expects a storm on the Rocky Mountain Front on Saturday, with sustained winds of 25 to 45 mph. Areas prone to down-slope winds, including Heart Butte, could see gusts up to 80 mph.

"We're going to be watching pretty closely," Keller said.

The 110-mph gust, recorded Tuesday evening in Heart Butte, probably was caused by a down-slope event, channeling the wind into a narrow area on the leeward slope of a mountain, said Matt Jackson, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Great Falls.

Tuesday's storm caused more damage than usual, but the windy weather isn't abnormal for the area, he said.

"It seems like for the past few years, it hasn't been as windy as it used to be," Jackson said.