NOXON — Northwest Montana’s historic rainfall hit hard in Sanders County, flooding along Highway 56 and triggering devastating landslides. Residents and first responders are working to pick up the pieces.
“Missions of pound of rock,” Noxon Rural Volunteer Fire Department chief Jim Byler said. “Last week the news said we were going to have historic rains. Well, we definitely had historical rains.”
Early Thursday morning, Rhiannon Wilson heard a noise. It sounded like the wind at first, but it kept getting louder. that kept getting louder.
“It sounded like a jet engine,” she said.
It was the sound of a massive landslide crashing into her garage off of Highway 56 near Bull Lake. She called for help and the Noxon Rural Volunteer Fire Department responded. When Byler arrived, propane was shooting everywhere and the rock had taken out a chunk of hillside, slamming into Wilson’s garage on its way down the mountain.
Go inside the rockslide zone with MTN's exclusive report:
“I’d say it goes a half a mile, because we have a firefighter that lives at the bottom and this actually went across his driveway,” Byler said. “Now, we got two more waterfalls up there that are actually potential of doing the same thing, but right across in front of this house.”
Wilson and her children were safe and Sanders County first responders saved all the animals that they could.
“We had two deputies come up. One brought his personal horse trailer and we walked the horses out of here,” he said. “He actually took them up to a rescue place in Libby until things are situated.”
Responders across Sanders County and the Northwest are working together to deal with the impacts of this historic rainfall. Parts of Highway 56 where crews parked to fight fires over the summer are completely submerged, along with roads and driveways.
“It's kind of spooky because you don't even want to sleep at night. Like last night I said, ‘Well, my gear’s by the door. I know my guys is all ready’ and we sleep very light just anticipating we're gonna have to take off,” Byler said. “You do have a lot of people along this river and they're actually like living on islands now and they can't even come out and check their mail.”
Responders are making the rounds by truck and boat, helping in any way that they can.
“We're always running shifts and running back and forth up and down the road checking on people, checking the roads,” he said. “So, we're D.O.T. We’re inspector. We're carrying seven different titles just because, you know, we care about the people.”
With flooding across the region, Byler wants to make sure that Sanders County is not overlooked.
“We might be a little town. It's a big county. But nobody has thought about this area except for us locals,” he said. “And our three fire departments are the only ones thinking of our people here.I haven't heard the governor, senators talking about just like this woman right here. She's single, got three kids and animals. Look at what she's got in her backyard and her garage now. And all these elderly people.”
No matter what happens, Byler said Sanders County responders will be there for the community.
“I mean food, water, a ride to the gas station or the doctors,” he said. “They're there for more than just getting up in the middle of the night to put out a house fire.”
