Flooding continues in region

Water continues to flood roads in the area, and with plenty of snow still waiting to melt, officials say it likely isn’t going to end any time soon.

“It’s going to be a pickle for a while,” Hill County Commission Chair Mark Peterson said this morning.

Peterson said he hopes to take a flight soon to survey the actual flooding from the air, but generally, many parts of western Hill County is flooding.

Officials were out looking at the flooding in Blaine County and were not available to comment this morning.

A National Weather Service flood advisory is in effect through Tuesday night for Blaine, Hill and Liberty counties, although the advisory had been lifted for Chouteau County.

Water is running across many county roads in the area, and also across U.S. Highway 2 and some state secondary roads. No state or federal highways are closed in this area, although warnings and reduced speeds are posted.

Peterson said the situation is highly variable; for example, water was going over Montana Secondary Highway 232 near Cottonwood Hall, but that had dropped by three feet as of this morning.

He said that, as of this morning, the Milk River had not risen enough to force the Bullhook drainage to be closed off and start pumping it into the river, but it is close. That is fairly standard when runoff starts raising the river, he said.

A forecast of rain and possibly more snow overlaps the flood advisory, with a chance of showers today and rain and snow likely tonight with a chance of showers Tuesday and a 20 percent chance of rain and snow Tuesday night.

Peterson said the melt is bringing more water to areas that haven’t seen this much for some time.

He said he has a reservoir that hasn’t been full in 30 years that has had water running over the spillway for the last two days and that will continue for at least two more.