As officials scramble to reopen Yellowstone National Park to tourists after record floods pounded southern Montana, some of those hardest hit in the disaster live …
As officials scramble to reopen Yellowstone National Park to tourists after record floods pounded southern Montana, some of those hardest hit in the disaster live far from the famous park’s limelight and are leaning heavily on one another to pull their lives out of the mud. In and around the agricultural community of Fromberg, the Clarks Fork River flooded almost 100 homes and badly damaged a major irrigation ditch that serves many farms. The town’s mayor says about a third of the flooded homes are too far gone to be repaired. Not far from the riverbank, Lindi O’Brien’s trailer home was raised high enough to avoid major damage. But she got water in her barns and sheds, lost some of her poultry and saw her recently deceased parents’ home get swamped with several feet of water. Elected officials who showed up to tour the damage in Red Lodge and Gardiner – Montana tourist towns that serve as gateways to Yellowstone – haven’t made it to Fromberg to see its devastation. O’Brien said the lack of attention is no surprise given the town’s location away from major tourist routes. She said she’s not resentful but resigned to the idea that if Fromberg is going to recover, its roughly 400 residents will have to do much of the work themselves.
