6.13.22
I remember that Monday in June like it was yesterday. We got a message from our news director Sunday evening as we were returning from the annual broadcasters award weekend in Big Sky (we won best television newscast of the year)…”Let’s make sure to hit flooding concerns hard on the morning show. The Red Lodge mayor is posting in the Red Lodge Buzz Facebook page and we have permission to use these videos and pics.” (Keagan Harsha, ND). I checked in with our morning show producer Zack “Make sure you are you checking the Carbon County Alert Facebook page. There’s a lot going on.” Of course he was on top of it already – arriving to work at midnight. That morning, June 13th, we broke the news on CBS, KTVQ in Billings, that Red Lodge, Montana was under evacuation orders. Rock Creek had breeched its banks and was running down main street, flooding businesses and homes in its path…literally wiping out bridges, roads and washing homes into the river. I knew it was bad, but there was no way to anticipate what was to come or really grasp the full gravity of the situation. However, by the MTN Noon News, as I scoured social media, gathering shocking videos and photos from viewers, it became very apparent that this was an unprecedented disaster of historic proportions.
In other news, top stories included gas prices at $5+/gallon, baby formula shortage across the U.S., the investigation into the January 6th capitol riot and former President Trump’s alleged role, crime in Billings and officer involved shootings, a controversial drag show/pride event story hour at Zoo Montana, recreational marijuana remains legal in Yellowstone County, Superintendent of Public Instruction Elsie Arntzen pleads no contest to illegally passing a stopped school bus and a bear appears in Lockwood frightening residents. That news in Montana quickly fell to the d-block (the bottom of the show).
When I saw a huge ponderosa pine floating down Rock Creek past a cabin that was now submerged in water, I knew it was bad. Then, I saw multiple cabins literally floating down the Stillwater river near Columbus and the Yellowstone River near Gardiner. Next, aerial video came in from YNP showing the road to Mammoth and beyond broken, cratered into the Yellowstone, the all-American Beartooth Highway – caved in. The power of the stone is impressive. Park officials evacuated tourists and shut down the park indefinitely, striking panic into the state’s heavy tourism economy. An image of a cratered road, a sink hole on highway 419 on the way to the Stillwater Mine sticks out in my mind. Some 70+ campers at Woodbine campground rescued by raft and via chinook helicopters as the National Guard was called in to aide with this natural disaster. The City of Billings water plant was submerged in water in the middle of the Yellowstone, and the states largest city asked to conserve water with only a 1.5 day water reserve. Towns like Gardiner became an island with no way in or out, boil orders went into effect in Red Lodge and surrounding towns as water supply was compromised.
Then came the stories of resilience and heroism as residents rescued fellow neighbors. Heroic rescues began and the heart of our state began to beat bigger than I’ve ever seen it before. Compassion for our neighbors poured out as bucket brigades began clearing mud and river debris from homes. Amazon Prime delivered truckloads of bottled water to Red Lodge for volunteers, homeowners and emergency responders.
MTN, CBS in Montana and Northern Wyoming, launched the MTN Flood Relief fundraising campaign, raising $20,000+ in the first 12 hours. I went live all morning at local businesses and at our downtown studio, taking donations of bottled water, non-perishable foods and money from the generous community – all searching for a way to help our neighbors in Montana.
Montana Governor Greg Gianforte was MIA for a minute, later revealed, on a vacation in Tuscany with the First Lady, but returned by that Friday to eventually get a presidential disaster and emergency declaration from President Joe Biden…along with support from Montana’s congressional delegation – U.S. Senator John Tester, U.S. Senator Steve Daines and U.S. Representative Matt Rosendale. I booked countless live morning show interviews with Montana’s congressional delegation and disaster relief experts as viewers asked – how will we rebuild? CBS national news flew in journalists to break the news on a national scale. We began working 12+ hour days covering the news as it broke.
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