This camper was totaled after a spruce larger than 20 inches around and another tree came down in the wind lengthwise on the trailer. The owner was from Missoula and according to law enforcement, he did have insurance.
An infant was laying in the bassinet when the tree came down on the trailer. It was unharmed in the incident.
SEELEY LAKE – Seeley Lake emergency personnel responded to a report that downed trees in Lake Alva campground trapped campers around 8 p.m. Friday, July 14. Two trees fell lengthwise on a camper trailer, totaling the trailer but sparing an infant in a bassinet. While another camper was also damaged, no one was injured.
Seeley Lake resident Alisia Sunderland witnessed the storm first hand. She was huckleberry picking in the campground when the storm hit. She heard the wind hit the treetops and described the rain coming at her "like a curtain across the lake and it was coming fast." Sunderland found a large tree to block the wind and rain.
"The wind got really strong and the tree made a crack. I jumped back and as I was moving back, all of the roots got pulled up out of the ground. So I turned around and started running," said Sunderland. "I heard another crack and another tree fell down right behind me and all the roots came right up. It was a really scary spot to be in the storm."
She ran through the forest as the trees continued to crack. When she hit the main road through the campground, she heard another big crack and a really large tree snapped in half and came down.
"I saw the camper over there but I didn't see the tree come down on it. I just kept running," said Sunderland. "I was looking up and running at the same time to make sure something wasn't coming down that I didn't see."
Federal Law Enforcement Officer Tyler Robinson said that the large tree that fell on the camper trailer in the group campsite was a 24-28 inch diameter live spruce that snapped 12 feet up. The other smaller tree had some heart rot but there was no way to know that before it fell.
"The damage was extensive to the camper trailer," said Robinson. "Luckily the kid was out by the door and the tree went right down the very center."
After the wind settled, campers tried to get out and realized that downed trees were blocking them in. They had a hard time getting enough signal to call out, so Sunderland texted her husband, Missoula County Sheriff's Deputy Mike Sunderland. Within 15 minutes they could hear sirens.
Robinson said campers had already started opening up the roads using chainsaws so emergency vehicles could get through.
"They worked really hard," said Robinson.
Another camper was damaged when a larch branch broke off and punctured a three-inch hole in the roof.
The Seeley Lake Ranger District contracted heavy equipment to remove the tree from the crushed trailer.
"Since the tree was on the National Forest and so was a publicly owned tree, we believe it was our responsibility to remove the tree from the camper," wrote Seeley Lake District Ranger Rachel Feigley. "The tree itself was such that it would be unsafe to perform any tree removal implemented by sawing."
The contractor removed the tree from the trailer and made it safe for sawyers to remove additional hazard trees following the wind event.
Earlier this spring, Seeley Lake Ranger District sawyers removed hazard trees from the campground. While this helped mitigate the risk, Robinson said all the fallen and snapped trees that he saw were green.
Robinson said, "I'm just thankful no one was injured or hurt because it was pretty scary."
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