FROMBERG, Mont. (AP) — As authorities race to reopen Yellowstone National Park to tourists this week following record flooding in southern Montana, some of those hardest hit by the disaster live far from home. the park’s spotlights and rely heavily on each other to get their lives back from the mud.
In and around the farming community of Fromberg, the Clarks Fork River flooded nearly 100 homes and severely damaged a major irrigation canal serving several farms. The town’s mayor said about a third of the flooded residences were a total loss.
Not far from the basin, Lindi O’Brien’s mobile home was high enough to prevent further damage. But the water entered her barns and sheds, she lost some poultry and saw how the house of her parents, who recently died, was submerged by several centimeters of water.
Elected officials who toured the affected area in Red Lodge and Gardiner, Montana resort towns that serve as gateways to Yellowstone, have not made it as far as Fromberg to see its devastation. O’Brien said he’s not surprised by the lack of attention, considering the town is off the main tourist thoroughfares.
She said she is not resentful, but she is resigned to the idea that if Fromberg is to recover, its nearly 400 residents will have to do much of the work themselves.
“We take care of each other,” O’Brien said, as she and her two old friends, Melody Murter and Aileen Rogers, searched through the muddy remains of her property. O’Brien, an arts teacher at a local school, had been fixing up her parents’ house in hopes of turning it into a vacation rental. She now she is not sure that she can salvage anything.
–
