Billings Gazette: A year after record flooding, Red Lodge is still putting itself back together

Ayear ago this week, south-central Montana was having a typical June. Fishermen lined the banks of the rivers, the campgrounds were filled, and pretty mountain towns like Red Lodge swelled with tourists and their money.

And then, in the early morning darkness of June 13, all hell broke loose.

A rare combination of hot weather and torrential rain across the high country washed all of the snowpack out of the mountains at once. Rivers unable to contain the torrents of water exploded over their banks, washing away whatever had been in their path — roads, bridges, homes, cars, and livestock.

In Red Lodge the snowmelt shot through town like it had been fired from a water cannon, is how one reporter put it. Homes, businesses and hotels anywhere near Rock Creek filled with rocks and mud and garbage. Broadway Avenue, the main drag through town, carried so much rock and debris that when the water finally receded the street looked like a riverbed.

Ayear ago this week, south-central Montana was having a typical June. Fishermen lined the banks of the rivers, the campgrounds were filled, and pretty mountain towns like Red Lodge swelled with tourists and their money.

And then, in the early morning darkness of June 13, all hell broke loose.

A rare combination of hot weather and torrential rain across the high country washed all of the snowpack out of the mountains at once. Rivers unable to contain the torrents of water exploded over their banks, washing away whatever had been in their path — roads, bridges, homes, cars, and livestock.

In Red Lodge the snowmelt shot through town like it had been fired from a water cannon, is how one reporter put it. Homes, businesses and hotels anywhere near Rock Creek filled with rocks and mud and garbage. Broadway Avenue, the main drag through town, carried so much rock and debris that when the water finally receded the street looked like a riverbed.

A man living along the Yellowstone River in Park City watched the river coming for him. When he heard water running below the floorboards of his living room, he started throwing his possession out of a window and then jumped. From his lawn, he watched his home teeter, tear in half and then go under the water.

And then everything was closed or canceled while the cleanup, which is still going on, got underway.

When the flood passed through Billings, witnesses stood along the bluffs above the Yellowstone River marveling at the size of the river. It rose to more than 16 feet, a full foot higher than ever before. But, aside from about $500,000 damage to the city’s water treatment plant, Billings got off easy.

Federal and state disaster officials, along with politicians, fanned out across the most damaged areas with promises of financial aid. That aid came — millions and millions of dollars — but it came in slowly, in lower amounts than was needed and in many cases with so much red tape that some people just gave up on it.

On Tuesday, Montana Sen. Jon Tester marked the flood’s anniversary with a long list of the federal relief money spent on recovery — nearly $1 billion.

More than $30 million went to road and highway repair. Another $40 million helped with repairs in the Custer Gallatin National Forest. And, Yellowstone National Park received $916 million, Tester said.

Still, “our work is far from over,” he said.

It will be a long time before south-central Montana fully recovers from the catastrophic floods.

Two weeks ago, one Red Lodge resident taking a break during the welcome return to town of the Montana Renaissance festival, said her basement still smells like mud and rotten wood. Everything in her house the water touched had to be thrown away, and much of it hasn’t yet been replaced.

“But, this is how we live here. We live in a place with rivers and forests and mountains and bears and snow and cold. It comes with some tradeoffs,” she said. “And, I guess, it’s worth it.”

2022 record flooding in south-central Montana (billingsgazette.com)