Floods, mudslides hit Rocky Boy

Mudslides and floods have caused more problems on Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation.

Havre Daily News/Nikki Carlson

Water washes out a road leading up to a home along Lower Road at Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation Friday afternoon.

The area near Lower Box Elder and Laredo roads were covered with water and mud Friday afternoon.

Emergency personnel were out all day trying to restore the condition of the roads.

Buildings at Stone Child College were opened up in the event that people had to evacuate.

In several areas, overflowing creeks covered driveways and made it hard or impossible for people to get to their homes.

Bobbi Favel, transportation planner for the Chippewa Cree Tribe at the reservation said at 4 p.m. Friday that a mudslide had put debris on Laredo Road near Bernard's Corner on the reservation, closing the road.

Until the rain stops falling, there is not much the reservation employees can do, making when the road will be reopened unknown, she said.

"Basically, until it stops raining, our hands are tied," Favel said.

Havre Daily News/Nikki Carlson

Water gushes through a pipe on the side of Lower Road at Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation Friday.

The closure is about a mile west of the Rocky Boy Agency, about 17 miles east of where the road turns off of U.S. Highway 87.

Favel said the area near Bernard's Corner was the only location where water had been going over the road, although saturated soil conditions and high stream water levels are in place throughout the reservation.

The bridges are holding up well throughout the reservation's road system, Favel said.

(John Kelleher and Nikki Carlson of the Havre Daily News contributed to this report.)