Big wind here, big snow east

Wild weather last week dumped upwards of four feet of snow at St. Mary and East Glacier, and high winds that topped out near 75 mph toppled trees on homes south of Columbia Falls.

The wind storm was particularly fierce along the Swan Range south of Columbia Falls last Tuesday (April 28). Eckelberry Drive residents Tony and Rose Beranek had five large Ponderosa Pines crash down onto their house. The neighbors, Rocky and CJ Street, had trees fall on their home as well.

The Beraneks left their house shortly after lunch as trees began to fall. Their son-in-law, Rob Booth, helped them get out safely. When they left, Booth said about three trees were down. When they came back, 30 trees had fallen. Their lot is heavily wooded with large Ponderosa pines and Douglas Fir.

In both cases, limbs from the trees went completely through the roof of the homes. Fallen trees also damaged several outbuildings. At the Gene Speer residence across the road, high winds blew over trees as well and tore siding off his barn. He was able to move a camper just before a tree went over.

"I've lived here since I was 6 years old and never seen anything like it," Speer said. He said he had a wind gauge on his porch and it got up to 64 mph before it broke.

In Beranek's case, a large tree landed squarely on a playhouse that was a family memento. The house was built for his daughters, Tammy, Angie and Brenda, in 1975. They had it moved from their old home to the Eckelberry place in 1983. It's made of small diameter trees — a miniature log cabin.

It had no chance under the weight of a massive Douglas Fir.

The Beraneks were still cleaning up early this week, while the Streets had pretty much cleaned up their place the day after the storm.

The fierce wind also ripped down area powerlines and knocked down numerous trees across the valley.

On the east side of the Divide, the story was a blizzard that snarled up travel and had livestock huddled around supplemental hay bales — normally pastures would be green this time of year, but upwards of four feet of snow fell. The snow levels were actually deeper out on the plains than closer to the mountains.

The snow temporarily closed all roads in and out of Browning on Wednesday and Thursday last week.

By last Friday, however, the weather was warming into the 60s and the snow had settled considerably.

There is some concern about small stream flooding east of the Divide, as the snow melts and rain was predicted as the Hungry Horse News went to press.