FROMBERG — Eight months after longtime Fromberg resident Larry Richardson, lost everything in the historic June flooding, he now has a new home in the same location thanks to a helpful stranger.
Richardson lives in the first house next to the Clarks Fork of the Yellowstone River in Fromberg, so he wasn't surprised how bad his home was damaged when the river spilled its banks. But it was still devastating.
“Well, I pretty much got wiped out from one end to the other,” he said Thursday.
The 76-year-old Vietnam veteran grew up in the home and purchased it in the 1980s after his parents died. In a matter of hours, flood waters left it uninhabitable. But during the clean-up days after the flooding, he experienced a welcome surprise.
“About four days after the flood, there was probably still a foot of water out here. And a guy pulled up in a pickup and he told me that he was going to help me. He said he wasn’t going to forget me, and he was going to help me,” he said.
The man introduced himself to Richardson as Floyd. Floyd, who never offered his last name, is a member of the Mennonite community and kept his promise to Richardson, by building him a new home.
"Jan. 9, they came in and started building," Richardson said.
By Jan. 31, the building was complete. Richardson spent his first night in his new home Wednesday.
"I just think it’s a neat little house,” he said. "I can’t put it into words how thankful that Floyd showed up in my yard.”
Richardson paid $30,000 for his new two-bedroom home. He has lived with a friend in Fromberg for the last eight months and now struggles to walk after getting a foot infection from walking in the floodwaters. But, he now feels like things are looking brighter.
“I’m finally getting some good luck now. I got me a little house,” he said.