LODGE GRASS - By Tuesday morning, a restoration crew had pumped an estimated 212,000 gallons of water from the basement of the Little Horn IGA here, but the ground was so saturated that more kept seeping in.
"It was a nasty mess in there," said store co-owner Doug McCormick. "All the floors were just covered in mud."
McCormick stood at the back door of the business helping his wife, Tammie McCormick, and Shadd Cullinan haul out water-damaged goods and toss them into a large white dumpster. A fishy smell hung in the damp air of the town of about 500 people on the Crow Reservation in south-central Montana on Tuesday.
Water from Lodge Grass Creek still ran through White Arm Park and down Main Street to the north.
The floodwater that came Friday caused $75,000 to $100,000 in damage to the store, McCormick estimated, about half of that in lost inventory. A mud line could be seen about 4 inches up on some of the store's white walls. Fine silt still coated the floor of the business' attached laundry and pawn shop.
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"We were fortunate, by the time I could get here yesterday the local people were in mopping and cleaning up," he said.
With Interstate 90 closed between Lodge Grass and Hardin, McCormick had to drive south to Greybull, Wyo., and then north to reach Lodge Grass - a five-hour roundabout trip.
When the water was at its highest, the town was unreachable with bridges washed out and roads drowned under the muddy water.
By Tuesday, local travel was being allowed on Highway 313 from St. Xavier and vehicles could access nearby I-90.
The IGA may have suffered some of the worst damage in Lodge Grass. The post office, next door, still had a mark that showed the high water had stopped about 10 inches below the windows, which were about 4 feet off the ground. Scattered about town were items that floated in from upstream - a worn soccer ball, heavy pieces of a large cottonwood tree and alley gravel on paved streets.
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Mike Dabney, who lives just up Main Street from the IGA, said he spent much of Friday night sandbagging his mother's home to keep water out.
"It was raging in like a river," he said.
Luckily, the water stopped rising before seeping into the house's main floor, but the crawl space was flooded.
Dabney said he spent Saturday night at the Lodge Grass High School gym, where the Red Cross had set up a temporary shelter. Only about 19 people stayed there, according to Roberta Old Bear, who was helping to run the shelter. By Tuesday, it was down to two people. Many of those displaced were staying with relatives, she added.
The school cafeteria was being used by the community, with meals being prepared by the school cooks with donated food.
"People in town have water in their houses so they come up here to eat because they're scared to turn their power on," she said. "I would be, too."
Vernelle Medicine Crow left her home near the Little Bighorn River southeast of town on Saturday to stay at the shelter, escaping with only a few clothes and her medicine gathered in a plastic bag.
"When we were leaving the water was already as high as the fence posts," she said.
"We have no idea when we'll be able to get back in."
