Around him, about a dozen family members, neighbors and friends shoveled mud from yards, streets and sidewalks.
“The whole entire street was flooded, moving like a river,” Ciccotelli said. “It was the craziest thing.”
The neighborhood was cleaning up after a Saturday evening storm pummeled Billings with 1.31 inches of rain, marble-sized hail and wind gusts nearing 75 mph.
The burst of rain happened so quickly – the 1.31 inches officially recorded at Billings Logan International Airport fell in just 45 minutes and an unofficial total of 2.10 inches fell just west of town, according to the National Weather Service – that neighborhoods across Billings saw flash flooding.
“Most of that was very quickly,” said Marc Singer, an NWS meteorologist in Billings. “The rainfall rates were pretty impressive over a such short period of time.”
It sent cascades of water tumbling down the Rimrocks and small rivers and streams flowing through the streets all over town, carrying rocks, gravel and other debris along and leaving muddy, rocky trails in behind.
On Golden Acres, that meant the floodwaters picked up piles of loose dirt from open and under-construction areas in the subdivision and mixed into a muddy flow. As the river of mud rushed onto the street, it also made its way up into people’s yards, driveways and, in some cases, their homes.
Candice Thole lives across the street from Ciccotelli on Golden Acres and on Sunday morning had 14 inches of water and about 10 inches of hail in her basement after the flood broke out a basement window.
The water flowed from behind her home, through her yard, into and down the street and then south between Ciccotelli’s and a neighbor’s home.
“It broke out our basement window and just filled it up,” Thole said.
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