Historic flooding causes ‘tens of millions’ of dollars in rural Libby

LIBBY — Terry Crooks has lived along Granite Creek south of Libby since 1980, and over the years he’s experienced several floods, including ones that have taken out the bridge near his house. But this week is easily one of the worst scenarios he’s seen. When Crooks went to bed Dec. 10, as an atmospheric river swept in across the Pacific Northwest, he knew that he and his neighbors could be in for a wet few days. 

“I could hear the river when I went to bed, and I knew it didn’t sound good,” he said in an interview Saturday. 

Despite that premonition, Crooks was still surprised when he was stirred out of bed at 1 a.m. Dec. 12 by a Lincoln County Sheriff’s deputy pounding on the door. 

“Your house is surrounded by water, and it’s coming up,” Crooks recalled the deputy saying.

It was a message being delivered across southern Lincoln County early that morning as heavy rain and melting snow combined to turn usually tepid creeks into raging rivers of whitewater near Libby, a town of about 2,700 in northwestern Montana. The community is no stranger to disaster — a wide-scale Superfund site was established in 2002, following the discovery of asbestos contamination from a vermiculite mine that operated for years in the area.

Terry Crooks surveys the damage along
Lower Granite Creek Road south of Libby on Dec. 13, 2025. The bridge near his home was destroyed two days earlier in a major flooding event. Credit: Justin Franz / MTFP

While weather forecasters predicted rain and warned of possible flooding, local officials said they were still caught off guard by the extent of the flooding, which washed out roads, inundated neighborhoods, destroyed at least half a dozen bridges, and may have damaged a dike holding back a reservoir above town. Seventy-two hours after the flooding began, officials on Saturday said they were still a long way from knowing just how extensive the damage was.

“This flooding event will have significant and long-lasting impacts on the south end of the county,” said Lincoln County Sheriff Darren Short during a town hall meeting in Libby on Saturday. “We still don’t know the full extent of the damage.”

‘IT TOOK US BY SURPRISE’

Boyd White, head of the Lincoln County Emergency Management Agency, has been running on “caffeine and sugar” since late Dec. 10 when the first reports of flooding emerged along Granite Creek. White and other emergency responders quickly assessed the situation and began dispatching trucks with dirt and sandbags to key locations along Granite, Libby and Flower creeks, which were all quickly rising. White said that while forecasters had initially predicted the water would peak around 2 a.m., it kept rising. 

“It took us by surprise,” Boyd said during Saturday’s town hall meeting at the Dome Theater downtown. 

By daybreak, water surrounded homes south of Libby, particularly along Farm to Market Road. The flood water also damaged or destroyed multiple bridges. Before officials could close Farm to Market Road, one man drove his vehicle off the bridge, Short said. While he was able to get out to safety, locals said the car remains in the river. 

Crooks said after sheriff’s deputies woke him up early Dec. 11, he moved his car to higher ground and then started filling sandbags to protect his and his neighbor’s homes. He said that numerous neighbors lent a hand that day, including a local church group and some high school students who helped fill bags with sand and build a berm across Granite Creek Road. “It’s a tragedy,” Crooks said, “but the camaraderie really lifts your heart.” 

Jeff Gruber, a local historian and former teacher at Libby High School, said this week’s flood was similar to one in 1974, when melting snow and heavy rain sent Libby Creek and others over their banks. That flood took out several trailer homes that had been hastily built in less-than-ideal locations during the Libby Dam construction boom. Gruber’s dad was contracted to rebuild a bridge after that flood, and he recalls the National Guard being deployed to help with the cleanup. 

“All that water came down the hill at once,” he said, comparing this week’s flood to the one a half-century earlier. 

Residents grab cases of water and gather
outside of a town hall meeting about local flooding in downtown Libby on Dec. 13, 2025. Justin Franz/MTFP Credit: Justin Franz / MTFP

Levi Thompson owns a construction company and lives along Libby Creek. He said water had come up to his house on Dec. 11, and while he was pretty sure most of his property had escaped damage, he had yet to have the time to do a complete assessment. Since the flooding began, he had been running around town with equipment to help clear debris building up under bridges for the City of Libby, Lincoln County and BNSF Railway. On Saturday morning, he and his crew were heading to Troy to work on a bridge there. 

Local officials said that while they know of seven damaged or destroyed bridges and numerous washouts, they expect they will find more in the weeks and months ahead, especially along remote roads in the Kootenai National Forest that surrounds Libby and nearby Troy. Short said deputies have been patrolling the county and reporting damage as they find it. He encouraged the public to report new damage. White said the damage assessments will help the county when applying for help from the state and federal governments to rebuild. He predicted that it would be a lengthy and expensive endeavor. 

“It could be in the tens of millions of dollars, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s in the hundreds of millions,” he said. “It’s going to be huge.” 

MORE RAIN IN THE FORECAST

While creeks in the area had dropped significantly by Saturday, additional rain is in the forecast for early next week, and local officials said they’re not out of the woods just yet. There is also concern about the stability of a municipal reservoir about 1.5 miles from downtown Libby. On the night of Dec. 12, Lincoln County officials warned residents along Flower Creek that the flooding may have compromised a dike holding back the Lower Flower Creek Reservoir. The lower reservoir is one of two that hold the city’s drinking water. The larger reservoir is held back by the Flower Creek Dam, which was rebuilt about a decade ago. City officials said the larger structure had not been damaged in the flood, despite rumors circulating on social media.