The Yellowstone River has breached a private irrigation ditch and is now flooding houses and barns along Pinto Dr and Arrow Park in Shepherd on Monday morning. Here, the river has consumed many acres and shows how it is carving out a channel into the open field above eroding away the river bank. Water around the barn and in the field are flowing in a manner to eventually start a new channel through the properties. (Photo by Jonathan McNiven)
“We’ve lived here for forty-one years, and this is the first time it’s flooded like this,” said Dave Shannon. Local residents Vicki and Dave Shannon purchased 20 acres of river-side property near Arrow Island Park back in 1979 and have never had an issue with flooding, even back during the floods of 2011 until now. However, the cause for the flooding this year isn’t because of an overly snowy winter, or an especially rainy springtime, it’s because a local dike was breached.
This all started last year when the river started eroding a small cement trench that ran alongside the bank. Due to the erosion, the ditch became severely compromised until it eventually gave way, and a large section was washed out on the morning of June 1, 2020. This opened up a new avenue for the water to flow, and some are worried that it could transform into a new channel for the river if it continues to progress unchecked.
“We have about 20 acres of land, and around half of it is covered by water,” Mr. Shannon continued. Nevertheless, with the majority of Arrow Park submerged, and the water levels still rising, the Shannons aren’t the only people at risk by the redirection of the Yellowstone. Many other locals are concerned about the destructive force of the flooding, not the least of which are the residents of the Eagle Bend subdivision. Located on a riverside bluff, inhabitants of the subdivision are concerned that the river may quite literally wash away the neighborhood over time if steps are not taken to prevent the water from carving the new channel too close to their properties.
Concern about the stability of the small drainage ditch was brought up to the Yellowstone County Commissioner in August of 2019 by the local residents. They hoped to reinforce the compromised area to prevent further erosion. However, the costs of the needed reinforcements were estimated to sit at roughly a half million dollars, according to Jim Greenberg, who was a spokesman for the group of residents at the time. Despite the various efforts of numerous locals, the river won out and washed away several hundred feet of the concrete dike. The flooding hit hard and fast. In a matter of a couple of hours acres of land were submerged by the river.
According to Podd Chambers at the National Weather Service, “we can expect the river to hit its peak of 13.5 feet at some point this week,” although he anticipates that the river has already reached that level by Arrow Park. This means that we can potentially expect the water to rise a bit more before it begins to recede, he says. Fortunately, he continued to say that there is no expected precipitation for the area that could cause any extra flooding.
With the river climbing towards its peak, more flooding further downstream has caused several fishing access sites to be closed down. According to the Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks the Gritty Stone and Voyagers Rest access sites near Worden are submerged and closed to everything but foot traffic. They stated that above-average seasonal temperatures in the past few days has melted the mountain snowpack and raised the level of all the rivers in the region. This caused at least two of the rivers to overflow their banks at the various access sites. Traffic restrictions will remain in place on all of the affected sites until the flood waters recede and any necessary repairs can be made.
Public Works Director, Tim Miller, says that there isn’t a known date for the re-opening of the roads that have been closed. He continued to say that they don’t expect the cost of repairing the roads to be extravagant. “The roads are gravel,” he stated, “so we don’t imagine it will cost too much.” They don’t expect needing repair anything more than the shoulders. He also stated that the flooding has affected a couple of trails in Two-Moon Park and Cerise Road in Lockwood. “So if you are planning a walk in those areas, you might want to bring a change of socks,” he said.
