ABSAROKEE — The impact of the 2022 flood in southcentral Montana was personal, but it was also financial: $46 million in public assistance, $13 million in federal loans, and hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenue to businesses around the state.
A year after the disaster, Montanans are still struggling with the physical, financial and mental impacts of the flood—Montanans like Wanda Wilcox, who runs a multi-generational ranch and tourism business near the confluence of the East Rosebud, West Rosebud, and Stillwater rivers near Absarokee.
“I've been up every night for a week at four in the morning because it was four in the morning when I woke up hearing the roar of the river," Wilcox said on June 13.
Dealing with silt, debris, crumbling river banks, and a closely encroaching river, Wilcox says one of the most enduring and frustrating parts of rebuilding after the flood is trying to find help.
“I kept trying to think of ways to help and fix and financially afford it. The only help they had was an SBA (loan backed by the Small Business Administration). So I had to mortgage my house so we could get the SBA loan to get the money," Wilcox said.
Wilcox's experience is similar to others living in the aftermath of the flood: bouncing between government and private agencies trying to figure out aid for damaged and destroyed property, repairs, and recovery, only to find dead-end roads and debt.
“A year later, we're still in the same boat," Wilcox said. "We did get some funding, but yet you have to come up with the money to have the government funding. So you have to come up with the 45,000 or the 50,000 or the 22,000 and then when we were in the flood, we didn't know what to do.”
The cost of the flood has been huge.
“The scope of a flood is pretty broad. And I think that pain is quite real," said Pat Barkey, director of the Bureau of Business and Economic Research at the University of Montana.
Multi-million dollar repairs within Yellowstone National Park continue; outside of the park, Montana Disaster and Emergency Services says $46 million of public assistance is spread out in nearly 200 projects across the state. Public assistance is one of the largest aid arms of FEMA, and the agency has also paid out an additional $3.6 million in individual aid.
Another type of federal assistance distributed to Montanans after the flood was $12.9 million in loans backed by the SBA.
Drawing differences and parallels between the flood and wildfires, Barkey said the flood was unique in its impact on businesses.
"This flood did a lot more damage to the businesses, per se," Barkey said. "It either destroyed the businesses literally, or it destroyed access to the businesses because of the unique terrain and limited access to those communities in the best of times."
Loss for Montana businesses ranges from multi-million dollar losses at the Sibanye Stillwater mine near Nye to the loss of tourism and agriculture seasons throughout several small communities. But Barkey says the flood also created jobs.
“In the case of all these things, they do precipitate new money coming to Montana. There's no question about it.," Barkey said. “Anybody with an excavator or anybody in road building, you know, those projects have a high priority as they should and high costs and those costs are realized as revenue to those who are doing the work.”
But Barkey said the cost of business, tourism, and revenue 'going offline' typically outweighs even the most robust policy response.
As for Wilcox, the need for repairs is urgent as the river changed course and is running closer to her guesthouse. But navigating the way ahead—it's positivity that keeps her afloat.
“I just want to hang on to everybody's hand and say we're all in the same boat. We'll get through this together one way or another," said Wilcox.
