Power has been restored to about 14,000 Flathead Electric Cooperative members who were in the dark this morning after lightning struck a Bonneville Power Administration transmission line between Kalispell and Hot Springs around 6:30 a.m. The outage was centered around the Kalispell, Bigfork, Lakeside and Somers area.
“Until the Bonneville Power Administration gets their repairs done, we’re just waiting it out,” said spokesperson Wendy Ostrom-Price. “It takes time.”
At one point, even Kalispell traffic lights were dark. Ostrom-Price said electricity was slowly being restored at around 8:30 a.m., but it would still take time to turn all the lights back on.