Governor assesses Missoula post-storm

Trucks and trailers and trees were still flying around Governor Greg Gianforte on Thursday as he got an update on the recovery efforts in Missoula after an unprecedented thunderstorm tormented the city last week. 

At one of the city’s humming dumpsites near Fort Missoula, local officials and city employees told him how the lot has been filled, emptied and filled again as residents continue to shuffle debris into mounds like this one. Mike Donemacher with the city’s parks department told the governor three dump sites have been permanently closed because they filled so fast. Local arborist contractors are “maxed” out, staff said, so they’ve been seeking contractors as far as Spokane to help out.

In a briefing earlier in the day, NorthWestern Energy reported to the governor that all customers’ power had been restored, while Missoula Electric Cooperative had only a few dozen homes still without power, albeit a week after the storm event. 

Much of the story in Missoula’s response the last week has been about neighbors helping neighbors, or pitching in around the city to coax the recovery along. 

“There were so many inquiries coming in of people offering help, to help their neighbor and it’s what Montana does best,” Gianforte told reporters. “It is truly a miracle that there was no loss of life, given the intensity of the storm.”

The big question moving forward is when federal aid can be tapped; the matter of if seemed to be a foregone conclusion by Thursday afternoon’s press event. The threshold for such disasters is a $2 million cost to damage on public infrastructure, a tally local officials say is well within the current estimate, although not yet hardened. Montana’s Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Tester on Thursday began the calls for the federal aid to be approved.