BIG TIMBER — High winds triggered dangerous road conditions across Montana, leading to multiple crashes, overturned semis, and the closure of Interstate 90 near Big Timber.
Interstate 94 and Highway 91 were also closed temporarily on Thursday due to the winds and semi crashes.
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Hamilton couple Bob and Patty Stone were among the many travelers stuck in Big Timber on Thursday afternoon. The Stones found humor in how crazy the wind was.
"Oh, the wind is unreal," Bob said with a laugh.
"It's crazy," Patty said. "It's really bad."
Another couple stuck at the Town Pump in Big Timber was Leon and Margaret Lammers, who were trying to attend a meeting in Livingston but had doubts that they'd make it.
"We'll see," Leon said with a laugh. "It doesn't look like it right now."
Both vehicles were stuck at the gas station due to a semi overturn near mile marker 353, where another semi landed on a Park County deputy's vehicle.
"I just want everybody to be safe, and I just hope there were no injuries," Patty said.
According to the Park County Sheriff's Office, the deputy involved only suffered minor injuries, but it led to the closure of I-90 for a few hours and was one of the accidents that made for a busy day for Shel Hanser and his towing company.
"We have six or seven trucks down right now that we're responsible for," Hanser said Thursday afternoon. "This is catastrophic for people. There is a tremendous amount of damage across the state."
Among the incidents: an RV and semi flipped near the Grey Cliff Mill, where Hanser's crew responded to assist. Hanser said the conditions made recovery efforts difficult.
"We really can't do anything until the wind dies down. At this point, just get them off the road, try to open the road and try to make it safe for people," Hanser said.
Hanser said his team was working to manage multiple scenes at once.
"Now, it's just a matter of kind of trying to triage that stuff and figure out where to send our resources," Hanser said.
With snow also in the forecast, Hanser said the coming hours would bring additional challenges.
"The challenge today is trying to wait for the wind and trying to beat all of the snow that's coming, so it'll be an interesting 24 hours for us for sure," Hanser said.
