Clark resident Ken Montgomery is still relatively new to the area, but he’s already experienced both the strong winds and stong community support.

Last weekend he experienced both.

Friday night into early Saturday morning those winds kicked up into high gear, as he clocked 95 mph wind gusts that toppled trees and a power pole onto his cabin.

That wind speed is equivalent to a category 2 hurricane.

At 12:30 a.m. Saturday morning, the National Weather Service in Riverton recorded winds of 49 mph with 75 mph gusts, but Montgomery said the wind and damage was unsually high at his cabin.

“This wasn’t the worst wind I’ve experienced (that would be the storm in 2021) but this is by far the most damage and as I asked around, remarkably it seems to have been isolated to my place,” he said. “About 12:15 a.m. on Friday night/Saturday morning, the cabin was shaking. And then you could hear the wind just sound like a freight train coming down from the mountains. And then a huge crash shook the cabin and a big flash.”

Montgomery said at first he thought it was lightning hitting the cabin, then he realized it was cottonwood trees crashing down, one on the cabin, while the flash was a power pole being pulled down by the trees.

The lines didn’t break and there were no live wires, and the fire department, sheriff’s deputies and a crew from Beartooth Light and Power all came out until about 3 a.m. In all Montgomery lost 20 of his trees.

 Then the community came out in force Sunday.

“Some of my lovely neighbors, friends and people in the community came over yesterday starting at 8 a.m., bringing chain saws, rakes, a Bobcat and whatever and spent about six hours with me and wow did we make amazing progress,” he said Monday. “Someone else brought over lunch for us. The support has been just wonderful.”