Supplies ferried to Montana flood victims

BILLINGS – Emergency workers ferried supplies to more than 300 people cut off Friday by flooding that has overwhelmed Montana towns and caused an estimated $8.6 million in damage to date.

Heavy rain and the runoff from record mountain snowpack have caused rivers over much of the West to spill from their banks. Montana has been hit particularly hard over the past few weeks, with hundreds of homes inundated and scores of roadways swamped.

River levels were retreating throughout the state on Friday, but more rain was expected to fall this weekend and cause floodwaters to linger in hard-hit areas in southeastern Montana.

There, roads washed out by the raging Musselshell River left people in a sprawling rural neighborhood in the hills outside the town of Roundup with no way to get out.

Stranded residents were able to call in grocery orders that emergency officials delivered by boat, said Cassie Degner, a local volunteer firefighter. A trailer filled with water, diapers and other essentials had been brought into the neighborhood before access was lost Wednesday.

“They’re going to bring in my medications today by, I don’t know, rowboat or whatever,” said 81-year-old Mary Brower, who suffers from congestive heart failure. She said she hadn’t been into town since May 20 and the roads have steadily deteriorated since that time.

“But I’m perfectly content here,” she said. “The people I have great sympathy for are the ones flooded out in Roundup.”

Authorities in Roundup began pumping out a portion of the downtown that has now been swamped twice since the Musselshell started to rise in late May.

Repairs on the road into the cut-off neighborhood could not begin because portions of it remained under water, said Degner. Another boatload of groceries and other supplies was to be ferried into the neighborhood Friday evening.

The Musselshell River was forecast to drop slightly Friday, then rise again and stay above major flood stage until Sunday.

“As soon as the water comes down it comes back up. We’re at the mercy of the river – and it’s not so forgiving lately,” Degner said.

Gov. Brian Schweitzer estimates flooding has caused more than $8.6 million in damage across the state since the end of May. That figure was included a Thursday letter to President Barack Obama in support of a previous request for a disaster declaration, and Schweitzer’s office said it could rise with additional damage.

The request for federal assistance covers 31 Montana counties and four Indian reservations. Schweitzer, who is in China, reviewed the letter before it was sent to Obama, spokesman Jayson O’Neill.