FEC Hopes To Restore Power Within Hour: Squirrel Cuts Power to South Kalispell

Update 10 a.m.: Power has been restored to downtown and south Kalispell.

Power is out through much of downtown and south Kalispell, after a squirrel got into a Flathead Electric Cooperative transformer early Tuesday morning.

Wendy Ostrom Price, communications director for Flathead Electric Cooperative, said a squirrel got into a large transformer in the south Kalispell substation in the Green Acres area just after 9 a.m. Tuesday. The resulting outage cut power for approximately 3,000 downtown and south Kalispell residents, as well as traffic lights in the area.

"Flathead Electric Cooperative crews are working on the situation to make repairs and hope to have power restored within an hour or so," Price said.