After Monday’s record-breaking floods, Yellowstone National Park is still closed. Residents and visitors were left stranded after historic flooding and evacuations in nearby communities.
According to the National Weather Service, heavy rain on snowpack from mountain ranges in the area is swelling rivers to unprecedented levels. The National Weather Service issued flood warnings to area rivers Tuesday evening.
Monday morning, the Park Service closed off the northern entrances of the park. Two hours later, the Park Service extended the closure to all parks’ entrances. According to a statement posted on the park website Tuesday, entrances will remain closed at all times until Wednesday. Officials are still working to evacuate backcountry park visitors.
Monday afternoon’s video from a National Park Service helicopter shows large areas of road near the park’s northern entrance being destroyed and water running just beneath bridges.
Cam Sholly, Park Superintendent, stated Monday that it was likely that the northern [road] loop would be closed for a significant amount of time.
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Two helicopters were deployed by the Montana National Guard to assist with rescue operations near Roscoe City and Cooke City. They have flown at most two missions and 12 people were rescued from a flood area Monday night.
Gardiner, a small town located just outside the park’s busy north entrance was closed to traffic for approximately 24 hours following flood waters washing out portions of U.S. Highway 89. Local traffic was allowed to use the two-lane road Tuesday afternoon, with 35 mph speed limits and warnings from authorities to evacuate immediately because of possible flooding.
Parker Manning, a visitor who was left in Gardiner on Monday, sent NPR’s Kirk Siegler photos showing a large house that fell into the Yellowstone River, which runs alongside the small town of 800 people.
Manning stated, “Everybody is a little stressed.” “But we just recognize that we must make the most of a difficult situation. There’s nothing we can change.”
Rebecca Demery and her husband run Gardiner’s sole grocery store, which has been cleared out in large part. Although delivery trucks should be able get into Gardiner today, access to Gardiner will be restricted for some time. Businesses in the gateway towns had hoped for a great summer after the pandemic.
Rebecca stated, “I think we’re just trying it hour by hour.” She said that there is nothing anyone can do to make it better. It’s going to turn out to be a very different Year than I expected.
Livingston, Mont. is approximately 50 miles to the south. The 25-bed hospital was evacuated Monday night, and the main campus is still closed Tuesday afternoon. Mandatory evacuation orders were issued to residents living near the Yellowstone River. Shelters were opened in Bozeman. Tuesday morning, the orders were lifted.
Yellowstone Public Radio reports that Red Lodge, a small town about 100 miles east, has experienced significant flooding and evacuations.
In a Facebook Live video, the town’s fire chief stated that the waters had swept away roads from nearby creeks. Residents were asked to avoid the area.
He said that he saw the sidewalk north of Red Box Car [restaurant] suddenly fall into the creek.” “Fortunately, nobody was in the vicinity of the sidewalk.”
Red Lodge residents were evacuated from a church in the aftermath of the basement flooding. They had to move to the county fairgrounds.
Red Lodge Community Church Pastor Pam Peterson stated to YPR that “We weren’t prepared for this by any means whatsoever” “So that causes even more anxiety.”
Red Lodge was warned about flash flood risk in areas downstream of it, particularly those that had approximately 30,000 acres burnt by wildfires last summer.
The National Weather Service issued a flood alert for Red Lodge and surrounding areas on Tuesday night. This could lead to flooding in Edgar and Belfry. The National Weather Service notes that the river’s rise will be slowed by a reduction in rainfall through Wednesday.
The NWS declared Tuesday that the river would remain at flood stage for most or its reach today, but would begin to fall below flood stage from south-to-north tonight through tomorrow.
