ROUNDUP — Just southeast of Roundup off Bender Road, residents in seven homes have been stranded for nearly two weeks after flash flooding washed away their road.
Log Cabin Road, Bender Road and Kelley Road all experienced damage when rain started pouring down on June 1, eating away at the roads and leaving trenches behind.
The biggest problem the small private road community in Musselshell County now faces is that Log Cabin Road and Bender Road no longer connect, leaving residents in seven homes stranded.
“This is the only way out,” Paul Fredricks, who lives on Log Cabin Road, said Monday. "I’m just hanging back there because I really can’t go anywhere. And yeah, we’re locked in here.”
Samantha Nicks lives at the beginning of Bender Road. She experienced damage to her fences but didn't lose access to a road. So, she has been the main person bringing essentials on her ATV to those unable to leave.
“People don’t like being locked in. They like the freedom to be able to go to town whenever they want to,” Nicks said. “We have our neighbors out here with itty, bitty, tiny Bobcats and skid steers trying to repair a 20-foot gap. It’s kind of crazy that in... days nobody has come in and offered to like really help these guys.”
The roughly 20 homes in the area, about half of which belong to an Amish community, were told by the county that because the roads are private, the residents are solely responsible for fixing them.
So that's what they're attempting to do. They rented equipment and are getting to work, putting nearly $10,000 of their own money toward the big job, but they need more.
“We don’t want to ask for help, but we need it,” said Kathy Hower, who lives on Kelley Road. “Anything that anybody could do to help us, we would really appreciate."
They are looking for donations of concrete slabs, boulders, loose gravel and diesel gasoline. They also have a fund set up for donations at First Security Bank in Roundup called "Log Cabin Washout."
