Tree falls through Echo Lake home

Five seconds. For one Bigfork resident that was the amount of time that could have changed or even ended his life Monday.

Andrew Kovatch and his wife Rosemary had just returned from a trip to Bismarck, N.D., to see their granddaughter graduate from the University of Mary. They arrived at their home of 16 years at 437 E. Village Drive near Echo Lake around 2 p.m. Kovatch was unpacking in his bedroom about 45 minutes later when he heard it start.

"I heard a wind burst," Kovatch said. "It was a lot louder than normal."

Kovatch walked from his bedroom to the front door and the second he opened it, a large ponderosa pine tree fell completely through his house from one side to the other — right where he had been standing five seconds earlier. Then a second, smaller tree fell roughly 10 seconds later, but stopped in the roof.

Both he and Rosemary got out of the house unharmed.

"It hasn't really set in yet," Andrew Kovatch said. "I'm disappointed. I'm disgusted, but I'm well-insured."

He's owned the land since 1971 and built his house in 1994. He's more concerned that he made it out with his life than about his possessions inside. The couple for now is not allowed back in, said Wayne Loeffler, chief of the Bigfork Volunteer Fire Department.

"I have been anticipating this," Kovatch said. "You always anticipate things with these big trees. Microbursts come through here every now and then."

He was surprised, however, about the tree that did the most damage. It always leaned to the west, away from his house. That was partially why he didn't take it down when he built.

"I just can't believe that tree went that way," Kovatch said.

He wasn't the only one who lost a home with the fall. The larger tree was home to an eagle's nest that has been a neighborhood feature for many years.

As a dozen members of the Bigfork Volunteer Fire Department worked to at least cover the hole in the home to prevent further damage from the weather that continued, the two bald eagles circled overhead.

The tree was so large it fell through the home and its top went down to the lake on the other side, where parts of the nest may have fallen in. Neighbors debated whether the nest was occupied by eggs or chicks at the time it fell.

Kovatch suspects it was. In watching the eagles for years, he's noticed they tend to return around April 1 and he usually hears the chirps of their young by May 1.

The Bigfork fire department responded to the call at roughly 3 p.m.

Though the Kovatches seemed to sustain the worst of the damage Monday afternoon, trees were felled throughout the area.

Half a dozen or more trees, both ponderosa and Douglas fir, were down blocking the part of East Village Drive near the Kovatch home and several more were down blocking West Village Drive.

Loeffler said to his memory this was the most structural damage cause by wind in several years.

"The Bigfork Volunteer Fire Department has been outstanding in their response and staying on-site and getting me and my wife consoled," Kovatch said. "I just appreciate it."

The fire department was called out to at least one other wind-related incident Monday. A tree had fallen on a vehicle but little damage occurred, Loeffler said.

High wind warnings were issued throughout western Montana on Monday with gusts expected up to 65 mph. According to the National Weather Service, high wind warnings can involve a "hazardous' high wind event. Sustained wind of 40 mph or gusts of 58 mph or more can result in property damage.