The flood waters came up to about 10 inches deep on Jonnie Jonckowski's property in west Billings on Thursday.
“Less than an hour ago it was literally cresting over the fence, and it filled up the complete yard,” Jonckowski said on Thursday afternoon.
Pumps directed the water to a nearby field, saving Jonckowski's home and horse stables.
Friends came out to help Wednesday night, and sandbags kept water away from the home that was rebuilt two years ago after a flood.
Then on Thursday, the warmer weather melted more snow.
Jonckowski is the founder of Angel Horses, Inc., which uses horses to comfort people therapeutically.
“They're an amazing animal,” Jonckowski said. “They're a lot like dogs. They're extremely sensitive. They're very keen to people that are struggling.”
This is just the latest calamity to hit the organization.
Angel Horses was scammed out of $70,000 in the fall, and in 2023 flooding caused hundreds of thousands of dollars of damage.
Understandably, this time at noon, Jonckowski was not optimistic about her 28-year-old nonprofit.
“I just almost threw in the towel,” Jonckowski said. “I thought we were just a finger in a dike that wasn't going to hold. It was just insane how fast it came. It was just raging.”
On Thursday, the warmer weather thawed more of the snow.
“About 45 minutes ago, the driveway was completely underwater,” said Jeremiah McGee, K2 Civil vice president.
But K2, Langlas & Associates, and plenty of other help arrived to keep the home from being damaged.
“So it's coming in quicker than they could get it out, so we just pump pumped it, pump the power,” McGee said.
“This go around when we first got here there was so much snow build up in their ditches that the water had nowhere to go and all the water was just flowing from the north,” said Dylan Lemm, Langlas project manager, who also helped Jonckowski in 2023.
Now they say with the pumps, the property may be safe from any more flooding by Saturday.
“We escaped the bad bullet,” Jonckowski said. “But thank goodness. God is good. Really good. I couldn't take another disaster.”
