Thursday, May 26 2011 8:08AM
Flooding has caused damage to many homes in rural Montana, reports say.
Substantial flooding in Montana has caused state officials to declare a statewide emergency, as numerous rural homeowners have had rising waters damage their homes and affect their access to clean drinking water, reports say.
Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer issued the emergency declaration as a number of counties remained underwater. Many of those rural communities lie in eastern Montana, the Associated Press (AP) stated, including the Crow Reservation. In all, flood watches were declared for 13 Montana and Wyoming counties.
"We've got 21 jurisdictions — county, tribal and city — experiencing some type of flooding across the state," Montana Disaster and Emergency Services Division Chief Ed Tinsley told the news source.
The Crow Reservation was declared a disaster area, the AP reports, as the flooding affected homes of some of the tribes living there. Shelters were set up statewide to help displaced residents find temporary housing.
Reports say the Red Cross set up a considerable-sized shelter at the Montana State University-Billings campus for supplanted residents.