More than 10,000 visitors were ordered to leave Yellowstone as unprecedented flooding hit the northern half of the country’s oldest national park, flushing bridges and roads and sweeping a bunk of workers miles downstream, officials said on Tuesday. It is noteworthy that no injuries or deaths were reported. The only visitors left in the huge park that surrounds the three states were a dozen campers who were still leaving their homeland. Yellowstone National 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 Cam Sholly. “The water is still raging,” said Soli, who noted that the forecast for wetter weather this weekend could cause additional flooding. The Yellowstone River reached historic levels after days of rain and rapid snowmelt, wreaking havoc in areas of southern Montana and northern Wyoming, where it swept away cabins, flooding small towns and breaking the current. It hit the park just as the summer tourist season, which attracts millions of visitors, was on the rise. Instead of admiring the huge moose and bison, the thermal pools and the believable explosion of the Old Faithful geyser, tourists witnessed nature in its most unpredictable state, as the Yellowstone River peaks in a brown chocolate torrent that swept across the of. “It’s just the scariest river ever,” said Kate Gomez of Santa Fe, New Mexico, on Tuesday. “Everything that falls into this river is gone.” The water only began to recede on Tuesday and the full extent of the disaster may not be known for a while. It was not expected to have affected wildlife. Closing the northern part of the park will keep visitors away from features including Tower Fall, Mammoth Hot Springs and Lamar Valley, which is known for its wildlife views such as bears and wolves. Old Faithful, Yellowstone Lake and views of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone are located in the south loop of the park and are likely to reopen. 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 said he did not believe the park had ever been flooded. Gomez and her husband were among hundreds of tourists stranded in Gardiner, Montana, 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 Arizona was seen in Colorado. Rick Toman, a climate expert at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, said the warming environment makes extreme weather more likely than it would be “without the global warming caused by human activity.” “Will Yellowstone be repeated in five or even 50 years? “Maybe not, but somewhere there will be 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 rock falls. Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte has declared disaster across the state. Some of the worst damage occurred in the northern part of the park and in the Yellowstone Gate communities in southern Montana. Photos from the National Park Service showed mud and rock landslides, washed-up bridges and roads that had been swept away by the flood waters of the Gardner and Lamar rivers. In Montana Red Lodge, a city of 2,100 people that is a popular jump point for a scenic, winding trail in the high country of Yellowstone, a creek that crosses the city jumped on its banks and crossed the main road, leaving trout swimming in the road later in the day under the sunny sky. At least 200 homes were flooded in the city and in Fromberg, Carbon County officials said. 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 restored on Tuesday, although there was still no running water in the affected neighborhood. Heidi Hoffman left early Monday to buy a crankcase pump in Billings, but by the time she returned her basement was full of water. “We lost everything in the basement,” Hoffman said as the pump pumped a steady stream of water into its muddy backyard. “Yearbooks, pictures, clothes, furniture. We would clean for a long time. “ On Monday, Yellowstone officials evacuated the northern part of the park, where roads may remain impassable for long periods of time, Sholly said. But 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 4 million visitors were recorded 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. It was not clear how many visitors to the area remained stranded or how many people living outside the park were rescued and evacuated. Mark Taylor, owner and chief pilot of Rocky Mountain Rotors, said his company had transported about 40 customers paying in the last two days from Gardiner, including two women who were “very pregnant”. Taylor spoke as he transported a family of four adults from Texas, who wanted to take a few more sightseeing trips before heading home. “I imagine they will rent a car and go check out some other parts of Montana – somewhere drier,” he said. In a Gardiner cabin, Parker Manning of Terre Haute, Indiana, saw the floodwaters of the Yellowstone River just outside his door. Whole trees and even a lone kayak passed by. Early in the evening, he filmed as the waters ate up the opposite bank, where a large brown house housing evacuated park officials was perched in distress. In a loud bang that was heard over the roar of the river, the house leaned into the water and was pulled into the stream. Sholly said he sailed 5 miles (8 kilometers) before sinking. In south-central Montana, floods on the Stillwater River trapped 68 people in a campsite. Stillwater County emergency services and Stillwater Mine crews rescued people Monday from the Woodbine camp with rafts. Some roads in the area were closed and residents evacuated. The towns of Cooke City and Silvergate, just east of the park, were also isolated by floods. In Livingston, residents in low-income neighborhoods were forced to flee and the city hospital was evacuated as a precaution after flooding his street. Officials in Park County, which includes Gardiner and Cooke City, said widespread flooding across the county had made drinking water unsafe in many areas. The Montana National Guard announced Monday that it had sent two helicopters to southern Montana to help evacuate. In the borough of Nai, at least four cabins were washed up in the Stillwater River, said Sally Blazina, including one she owned. “It was my refuge,” he said Tuesday. “I was shocked yesterday. “Today I am just very sad.” The Yellowstone River in Corwin Springs reached 13.88 feet (4.2 meters) on Monday, higher than the previous record of 11.5 feet (3.5 meters) set in 1918, according to the National Weather Service. Yellowstone rain was 2.5 inches (6 cm) on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. The Beartooth Mountains northeast of Yellowstone reached up to 4 inches (10 cm), according to the National Weather Service. Video from a southern Montana community near Yellowstone National Park shows a house falling into the raging Yellowstone River on Monday. Heavy rain and melting snow caused floods, damage and evacuations in and around the park. The Associated Press The Morning and Afternoon Newsletters are compiled by Globe editors, giving you a brief overview of the day’s most important headlines. 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