Montana resident: ‘The water won’
Billings may lose drinking water
BILLINGS, Mont. — Devastating floodwaters that wiped out miles of roads and hundreds of bridges in Yellowstone National Park, and swamped scores of homes in surrounding communities moved downstream Wednesday, threatening to cut off fresh drinking water to residents of Montana’s largest city.
Heavy weekend rains and melting mountain snow had the Yellowstone River flowing at a historically high 16 feet as it raced past Billings. The city gets its water from the river and was forced to shut down its treatment plant at about 9:30 a.m. because it cannot operate effectively with water levels that high.
“None of us planned a 500-year flood event on the Yellowstone when we designed these facilities,” said Debi Meling, the city’s public works director.
Billings had just a 24-to36-hour supply of water and officials asked its 110,000 residents to conserve, while expressing optimism that the river would drop quickly enough for the plant to resume operations before the supply ran out. The city also stopped watering parks and boulevards, and its fire department was filling its trucks with water from the Yellowstone River.
Cory Mottice with the National Weather Service in Billings said the river was expected to crest Wednesday evening and drop below 13.5 feet by midto late-Thursday.
The unprecedented sudden flooding that raged through Yellowstone earlier this week drove all 10,000-plus visitors out of the nation’s oldest park, which remains closed. It also damaged hundreds of homes in nearby communities, though remarkably no one was reported hurt or killed.
It also pushed a popular fishing river off course — possibly permanently — and may force roadways to be rebuilt a safer distance away.
On Wednesday, residents in Red Lodge, Montana, used shovels, wheelbarrows and a pump to clear thick mud and debris from a flooded home along the banks of Rock Creek.
“We thought we had it and then a bridge went out. And it diverted the creek, and the water started rolling in the back, broke out a basement window and started filling up my basement,” Pat Ruzich said. “And then I quit. It was like, the water won.”
Park officials say the northern half of the park is likely to stay closed all summer, a devastating blow to local economies.
In Gardiner, Montana, businesses had just started recovering from the tourism contraction due to the pandemic and were hoping for a good year as Yellowstone celebrates its 150th anniversary, said Bill Berg, a commissioner in Park County.
“It’s a Yellowstone town, and it lives and dies by tourism, and this is going to be a pretty big hit,” he said.