South-central Montana communities hit by an unexpected spring flood are scrambling to prepare for next year, but officials in Carbon County say they’re worried repairs aren’t happening fast enough as winter approaches.
Dozens of people gathered Thursday night in Joliet to hear recovery and repair updates from a panel of county commissioners, mayors and agency representatives at a Carbon County community meeting.
Counties and the state have been coordinating with federal agencies on recovery efforts. Among the difficulties local officials identified are permitting requirements that differ agency to agency.
Carbon County Commissioner Bill Bullock shared a photo of two trees downed over a river. He said landowners need to go through a clunky permitting process in order to remove obstructions like these rather than do it themselves.
One outstanding concern among landowners, he said, is that spring might roll around with the possibility of more flooding events while the debris remains in the streams by their homes.
“I don’t feel that we’re in a good position coming into spring," he said. "A lot of obstacles that are out there, and there’s a lot of frustrations out there."
Agencies are still doing assessments in the area and are in the midst of recovery and repair.
A representative with Montana Department of Transportation said it will be doing river and bridge work beginning in December that it should wrap up by spring. That includes building new river retaining walls.
Carbon county disaster emergency services said it’s updating its operating plans and evacuation protocols, and a representative with Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation said it’s in the process of revising floodplain maps.
The mayors of Red Lodge and Fromberg also expressed concern about the slowness of the process, especially with the possibility of more flooding events in the seasons to come.
