Floodwaters still impacting roads

With the long-awaited arrival of spring has come warm weather and melting snow along with a lot of flooding in north-central Montana.

Hill and the surrounding counties have seen flooding on roads as the winter's substantial snow accumulation has melted over the last few days.

Hill County Disaster and Emergency Services Coordinator Amanda Frickel said Monday evening that the county is aware of water running over sections of roads north of town, and urged motorists to keep their eyes open for emergency personnel and drive slowly.

A public service announcement from the Hill County Road and Bridges Department said flooding will likely worsen in the coming days due to this winter's record snowfall and will continue to damage the roadways.

The PSA says the department is working to mark the damaged areas with flags to alert motorists but they urge all to be cautious while driving, especially on rural roads, and people should be expecting closures and barricades depending on how bad a given road is.

It asked motorists to heed barricades for the sake of everyone's safety and to report any problems they find.

"The Hill County Road Department will be working diligently to fix the problem areas, but this will obviously take time," the PSA says, "Main traveled roads will take precedence and the department will work as quickly as possible to make these roads passable."

Blaine County Emergency Manager Haley Velk said a lot of creeks in the area are rising and the snowmelt is definitely causing problems, but the situation is changing rapidly and some creeks are already receding.

The Blaine County Road Department's Facebook page, which Velk said is being updated as often as possible, says, as of 4:30 Monday afternoon, that New Hope Road at Snake Creek, Bowes Road: from Cleveland Road to Redekop Road, Redekop Road from Bowes Road to Prairie Road, Yantic Road from Redrock Road to Brod Road, Kline Road, Merrill Road: from Dead River to New Hope, and Klindworth Road at Woody Coulee Island are all closed.

River Road from Sharptail Road to Logie Road, Barney Olson Road, Lloyd Road and Sage Road are passable but caution is advised due to road conditions.

It says Highland Road North of the Yantic Road intersection at Badger Coulee has ice and water on the road which is still being pushed off and Lonesome Road is impassable.

Liberty County had not responded to the Havre Daily News for information by deadline, but a post on the Liberty County Road Department Facebook page from Monday was requesting assistance from anyone willing to fill or place sandbags at the corner of Adams Avenue and Third Street East in Chester, saying high waters were expected in the next few hours.

Chouteau County also had not responded to a request for information but the Chouteau County Sherriff's office Facebook page warned of flood-related closures in Big Sandy at North Lonesome Lake Road between Ihmsen Well Road and Gardiner Road and from Black Coulee Road to Rudyard Road.

Montana Department of Transportation's online map did not show any local highway closures this morning, but it did have warnings of water over highways including U.S Highway 2 east of Harlem and east of Kremlin, two locations on Montana Highway 232 north of Havre and Montana Highway 224 north of Joplin.