Wind whips through county

After a weekend of sunshine and temperatures in the 90s, Labor Day came in with a bang as strong winds pummeled Sanders County.

The strongest wind gusts were seen in the west end of the county. Home owners in Trout Creek reported several trees down and power was knocked out throughout the Northern Lights service area. In Thompson Falls, some residents were without power for as little as an hour, while others didn't have power retored until Monday afternoon.

As of Tuesday afternoon, hundreds of Northern Lights customers were without power due to outages caused by the Labor Day wind storm. In Heron, 253 customers were without power. Other outages remained in the Bull River area and along Blue Slide Road.

Due to the high fire danger throughout the county, crews were being careful as they worked to restore power to ensure no new wildfires started.

Power outages reported to NorthWestern Energy throughout the remainder of Sanders County were resolved on Monday.

Residents woke up to near-freezing temperatures on Tueseday morning, but the forecast calls for temperatures to remain in the 80s through the rest of the week.

Fire danger remains at high throughout the county and smoke from wildfires in California and Washington continues to make its way into the area.