The worst of flooding in southern Montana has brought out the best of people helping each other.
A Roscoe woman is now dealing with the loss of her home after her family helped her get out safely.
Jeanette Ostrum has been staying with her daughter in Billings after the East Rosebud River rose to levels that destroyed her home along Highway 78.
"That river was so angry and so wild," Ostrum said Friday. "I've never seen anything like it."
After 66 years in the small community of Roscoe, her house is no more.
Her son tried to save it with sandbags.
"Just the waves were huge, and it just kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger," Ostrum said. "And then you know, it started washing under the house."
"The river kept eating away at the bank as it was going around the corner," said Marcia Pearson, Ostrum's daughter. "And we could feel boulders literally rolling. You know, as they got closer to the house."
Pearson was there to help, and they knew it was time to leave.
The river rose around the home, then subsided and the plan was to come back the next day.
"We were planning to come back the next morning and clean things up," Ostrum said. "I never dreamt the house would go."
Jeanette and her late husband moved to the new home 12 years ago after living nearby.
But four years later, her husband died after a routine surgery took an unexpected turn. It was yet another loss for this 83-year-old woman who's dealt with one obstacle after another.
"Why do I have to start over at 83?" Ostrum asked. "But with God's help, you know he has a plan for us."
"It's really tough to see her go through this," Pearson said. "But she'll get through it. She's a tough lady. She's been through a lot in her lifetime. She'll get through this. She already is."
Ostrum is receiving a lot of help from her church and the people in Absarokee and Roscoe, a small community rallying around each other in the face of unexpected tragedy.
