Heavy snow fall closes school, delays postal deliveries

Mother nature dumped almost two feet of fresh powder on Bigfork from Sunday through Monday evening, cancelling school for two days and causing residents difficulty.

About 21 inches of snow fell on Bigfork, according the National Weather Service.

The rapid accumulation of snow has left state and county road workers hustling to get the streets cleared.

Downtown Bigfork was a scene of stuck vehicles and snow blowers yesterday, while residents waited for plows to take to the streets.

Flathead County Public Works director Dave Prunty said crews started plowing the downtown area at 4 a.m., Tuesday and a grader and plow continued to work all day in the Bigfork area. Prunty said by the end of Tuesday most of the county roads should be open.

“There most likely will be a few of the lower traffic count roads that we haven’t been to, but we should be able to get them tomorrow morning,” Prunty said Tuesday.

For the rest of the week, county crews will be starting at 5:30 a.m., to get caught up on snow removal. They may also remove snow from the downtown area by trucking it out, but that project would wait until other roads are clear and crews have more time.

“Our priority is to have the roads open for travel first, and then we can go back and do that kind of clean up,” Prunty said.

Besides cancelling school the snowfall has also hindered the postal service. Bigfork mail carriers encountered numerous snow-related problems Monday and were only able to deliver about 10 percent of the mail Bigfork Postmaster Tyler Thompson said.

Most of that was due to un-plowed roads and not being able to access mailboxes because of the snow.

“For the most part the carriers weren’t able to get off the main arteries,” Thompson said. “Once you get to some mailboxes it’s eight feet between where they can stop and the mailbox. You can’t even get close to them.”

Thompson asks residents to do what they can to shovel out their mailboxes and make the accessible to the carriers.

“People need to get out and shovel those every day, or they’re not going to get any mail. It’s too difficult,” he said.

The Flathead Avalanche center continued an avalanche warning on Tuesday for the Swan Range, Whitefish range, Flathead Range and southern Glacier National Park.

“This new load on the snowpack is a big one, particularly in the Swan Range,” the warning stated. “Storm slabs could fail on the interface from Sunday's snow or at any given density change within the new storm snow. Given the sheer amount of new snow, storm slabs could be up to three feet deep or more. As new snow and rain with rising temperatures falls this morning even more stress will be added to the snowpack. Avoid avalanche terrain and runout zones. “

An avalanche temporarily closed U.S. 2 about 10 miles west of Essex shortly after 5 a.m. Tuesday morning. Department of Transportation maintenance chief Gary Engman said 3 to 5 feet of snow covered the road, which was cleared by 8 a.m.

Engman said a BNSF Railway service truck was passing through the area at the time of the slide, but the driver wasn’t injured.

Road crews earlier in the night had cleared smaller snow slides on the highway.  

Though the snow has mostly stopped falling the National Weather Service issued another winter weather advisory starting and 5 p.m. on Tuesday through Wednesday morning.

The advisory warned of arctic air pushing over the continental divide and into the Flathead Valley causing gusts of wind up to 30 miles per hour causing blowing snow and icy roads.

Despite the slick roads and snow related hazards, Bigfork Fire Chief Wayne Loeffler said the department hasn’t received an inordinate amount of calls with the weather. 

“It’s actually been pretty quiet to be honest with you,” he said. The fire department and quick response unit had about six calls on Sunday and five on Monday. The biggest issue they have responded too are semi-trucks struggling with the Woods Bay hill.

Semitrailers spun out on Woods Bay Hill about 5 miles south of Bigfork on Montana 35, blocking one lane of traffic just before noon on Monday. The roadway was cleared three hours later. 

Loeffler does warn residents to be careful in all the snow, watch for snow sliding off metal roofs and be careful driving.

“If you don’t have to be out and about, stay home until they get the roads plowed,” he said.