The only visitors left in the huge park that surrounds the three states were a dozen campers who were still leaving their homeland. The park, which is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year, could be closed for a week and the northern entrances may not reopen this summer, said Curator Kam Soly. “The water is still raging,” said Soli, who said more wet weather was forecast this weekend, which could cause additional flooding. The floods hit historic Yellowstone levels after days of rain and rapid snowmelt, wreaking havoc in southern Montana and northern Wyoming, where they swept away cabins, flooded small towns, knocked down power and flooded homes. It hit the park just as the summer tourist season, which attracts millions of visitors, was on the rise. This aerial photograph provided by the National Park Service shows the flooded North Entrance Road of Yellowstone National Park in Gardiner, Mont., Tuesday. More than 10,000 visitors were evacuated from the park due to raging waters. (Doug Kraus / National Park Service / The Associated Press)
“The scariest river of all time”
Instead of admiring the grizzly and bison location, the thermal pools and the regular Old Faithful geyser burst, tourists witnessed nature in its most unpredictable state, as the Yellowstone River peaked in a brown chocolate stream in the vicinity. his passage. “It’s just the scariest river ever,” said Kate Gomez of Santa Fe, NM, on Tuesday. “Anything that falls into that river is gone.” No deaths or injuries were reported, but the floodwaters began to recede on Tuesday and the full extent of the damage was not yet known. Floods caused by heavy rains over the weekend caused damage to roads and bridges in Yellowstone National Park, with park officials closing all entrances until at least Wednesday. (Doug Kraus / National Park Service / The Associated Press)
Contact the campers, safe
Sholly said she had contacted the backpackers who remained in the park. The crews were prepared to evacuate them by helicopter, but that has not been needed yet, he said. Soli added that he did not believe the park had ever been closed due to flooding. Gomez and her husband were among hundreds of tourists trapped in Gardiner Mont, a town of about 800 people at the north entrance to the park. The city was cut off for more than a day until Tuesday afternoon, when crews reopened part of a paralyzed two-lane road. Although floods cannot be directly attributed to climate change, they occurred as the Midwest and East Coast were swept away by a heat wave and other parts of the West were burned by an early fire season amid a persistent drought that has increased in frequency and intensity. fires that have wider implications. Smoke from a fire in the Flagstaff Mountains of Ariz. Was visible in Colorado. The floods also damaged nearby Red Lodge in Mont. Here, a car appears to be sinking on a damaged road. (Matthew Brown / The Associated Press)
Disaster was declared throughout the state
Rick Thoman, a climate expert at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks, said a heated environment makes extreme weather more likely than it would be “without the warming caused by human activity.” “Will Yellowstone be repeated in five or even 50 years? Maybe not, but somewhere it will have something similar or even more extreme,” he said. Heavy rain on top of melting snow on the mountain pushed the Yellowstone, Stillwater and Clarks Fork rivers to record levels on Monday, according to the National Weather Service. Officials in Yellowstone and several southern Montana counties were assessing the damage from the storms, which also caused mudslides and rockslides. Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte has declared disaster across the state. Red Lodge residents appear to be clearing mud, water and debris from the small town’s main street on Tuesday, following a flood that swept through a residential area with hundreds of homes. (Matthew Brown / The Associated Press) Some of the worst damage occurred in the northern part of the park and in the Yellowstone Gate communities in southern Montana. Photographs by the North Yellowstone National Park Service showed a landslide of mud, bridges and roads flooded by the flood waters of the Gardner and Lamar rivers. In Red Lodge, Mont., A city of 2,100 inhabitants which is a popular jump point for a scenic, winding route to Yellowstone, a creek that crosses the city jumped on its banks and flooded the main road, leaving trout swimming on the road. day later under the sunny sky. Residents described a scary scene where water went from a drop to a torrent in just a few hours. The water knocked down telephone poles, tore down fences and dug deep crevices in the ground through a neighborhood of hundreds of houses. Electricity was cut off, but restored on Tuesday, although there was still no running water in the affected neighborhoods. On Monday, Yellowstone officials evacuated the northern part of the park, where roads may remain impassable for long periods of time, Sholly said in a statement. However, the flood also affected the rest of the park, with park officials warning of even greater flooding and possible problems with water supply and sewerage systems in developed areas. The rains hit as hotels in the area have been filled with summer tourists in recent weeks. More than four million visitors were counted from the park last year. The wave of tourists does not subside until autumn and June is usually one of the busiest months in Yellowstone.
