River on the rise

• Little Missouri River

The Little Missouri River is seen as it flows north toward Medora, seen in the background, on Friday evening. Photo by Jason Kastrow, Billings County Sheriff's Department
• Little Missouri River

The Little Missouri River runs as Tjaden Terrace in seen the background on Friday evening. Photo by Jason Kastrow, Billings County Sheriff's Department

Talk about it

Ice backup coupled with runoff from this week’s thaws forced a surge of water to flood areas along the Little Missouri River on Friday.

The surge, an estimated seven miles long, forced some residents to evacuate their homes in low-lying areas near the river while others saw property damage to ranches and had to evacuate livestock.

Jamey Adams, who owns a ranch about 20 miles south of Medora, said ice caused water to back up and flow into his ranch in the early afternoon. Adams said the water flooded his barn, corral and feed lots.

“Thirty years this spring I’ve been here and this is the highest I’ve ever seen it,” Adams said. “… I figured this river was going to go out. I had some horses on the river. I got them out this morning. That would have killed them. I thought they were safe in the corral and it almost drowned them in there.”

Adams said it didn’t take long for the water to recede from his property, although it did quite a bit of damage.

“It really did a job this time,” Adams said.

The waters reached Medora in the early evening hours. North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame manager Kathy Miller said the waters were running beneath the Pacific Avenue Bridge at an estimated 15 miles an hour as residents watched safely from above.

While others watched the water, some were getting away from it.

Sisters Dee Baertsch and Sandy Baertsch were forced to evacuate their cabins along the river bottom near the Château de Mores.

“The Château bottom is completely under water,” Dee Baertsch said at approximately 8:15 p.m. “We’ve got two houses if we can’t tell if they’re under water and two that are safe right now.”

Baertsch, her sister and her husband, Wally Owen, said they were hoping to stay at the AmericInn motel in Medora on Friday night as they awaited word on their property. Baertsch said she has lived there for 19 years.

While city officials said flooding didn’t do much damage in the city — Baertsch noted that Chimney Park had some water in it — Miller said an ice jam beneath the Interstate 94 bridge that goes over the river caused concern late in the evening. However, both Miller and Baertsch said they had received word that the jam had broken and water was again flowing at about 8:30 p.m.

Rancher Doug Tescher watched as the waters crept close to his cabin near the Sully Creek Campground south of Medora early in the afternoon, but said later in the day that the cabin wasn’t affected by the floodwaters.

Theodore Roosevelt Medora Foundation maintenance director John Hild said he didn’t expect Medora to see much of an impact from the flooding, although he added it was an interesting site to behold.

“It’s cruising,” Hild said of the water. “It’s definitely wider than I’ve seen it for quite a while.”

Pat Rummel, the emergency manager for Billings County, said everyone living along the river and those with livestock near it were notified about the surge of water pushing north.

He said many low-lying areas were still experiencing flooding but most people and livestock along the river had been evacuated.

“Everything in the low-lying areas they’ve moved out of the way,” Rummel said. “They should all be in good shape.”

Tags: trnp, news, medora, billings, county