Tuesday, June 14, 2022 7:34:34 PM
Yellowstone flooding prompts 10,000 to flee national park
By AMY BETH HANSON and MATTHEW BROWN 29 minutes ago
1 of 22 - Floodwaters are seen along the Clarks Fork Yellowstone River near Bridger, Mont., on Monday, June 13, 2022. The flooding across parts of southern Montana and northern Wyoming forced the indefinite closure of Yellowstone National Park just as a summer tourist season that draws millions of visitors annually was ramping up. (AP Photo/Emma H. Tobin)
01:35
Video from a southern Montana community near Yellowstone National Park shows a house fall into the raging Yellowstone River on Monday. Heavy rain and melting snow have caused flooding, damage and triggered evacuations in and around the park. (June 14)
RED LODGE, Mont. (AP) — Yellowstone National Park officials say over 10,000 visitors — all but one group of backpackers — had evacuated the park by Tuesday as it evaluates damage from massive flooding.
Superintendent Cam Sholly said the visitors were asked to leave after roads and bridges washed out and power was knocked out from heavy rains and snow melt.
The flooding hit historic levels in the Yellowstone River, where it washed out several sections of the main highway from the park’s north entrance.
The torrent undercut the river bank and toppled a house where the families of six park employees had lived into the raging waters. The building, which had been evacuated, floated 5 miles (8 kilometers) downstream before sinking.
Sholly said one group of campers was still in the backcountry. They had been contacted and crews were prepared to evacuate them by helicopter, but that hasn’t been needed yet, he said.
Sholly added he didn’t believe the park had ever shut down from flooding. He said the north entrance is expected to be closed all summer.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
RED LODGE, Mont. (AP) — Yellowstone National Park’s signature river reached an unprecedented level and unleashed floodwaters that tore through the surrounding areas, sweeping away houses, washing out bridges and roads, stranding tourists and residents, and prompting frantic helicopter and raft rescues.
The flooding across parts of southern Montana and northern Wyoming from days of rain and a rapidly melting snowpack indefinitely closed one of the nation’s most iconic parks just as a summer tourist season that draws millions of visitors was ramping up.
Instead of marveling at the site of massive elk, grizzlies and bison roaming freely, burbling thermal pools and the regular blast of Old Faithful’s geyser, tourists found themselves witnessing nature at its most unpredictable as the Yellowstone River crested in a chocolate brown torrent that washed away anything in its path.
“It is just the scariest river ever,” Kate Gomez of Santa Fe, New Mexico, said Tuesday. “Anything that falls into that river is gone. The swells are huge, and it’s just mud and silt.”
[...]
https://apnews.com/article/floods-travel-montana-obituaries-evacuations-3753caa39435d9f3f45d8b582381a0c6
By AMY BETH HANSON and MATTHEW BROWN 29 minutes ago
1 of 22 - Floodwaters are seen along the Clarks Fork Yellowstone River near Bridger, Mont., on Monday, June 13, 2022. The flooding across parts of southern Montana and northern Wyoming forced the indefinite closure of Yellowstone National Park just as a summer tourist season that draws millions of visitors annually was ramping up. (AP Photo/Emma H. Tobin)
01:35
Video from a southern Montana community near Yellowstone National Park shows a house fall into the raging Yellowstone River on Monday. Heavy rain and melting snow have caused flooding, damage and triggered evacuations in and around the park. (June 14)
RED LODGE, Mont. (AP) — Yellowstone National Park officials say over 10,000 visitors — all but one group of backpackers — had evacuated the park by Tuesday as it evaluates damage from massive flooding.
Superintendent Cam Sholly said the visitors were asked to leave after roads and bridges washed out and power was knocked out from heavy rains and snow melt.
The flooding hit historic levels in the Yellowstone River, where it washed out several sections of the main highway from the park’s north entrance.
The torrent undercut the river bank and toppled a house where the families of six park employees had lived into the raging waters. The building, which had been evacuated, floated 5 miles (8 kilometers) downstream before sinking.
Sholly said one group of campers was still in the backcountry. They had been contacted and crews were prepared to evacuate them by helicopter, but that hasn’t been needed yet, he said.
Sholly added he didn’t believe the park had ever shut down from flooding. He said the north entrance is expected to be closed all summer.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
RED LODGE, Mont. (AP) — Yellowstone National Park’s signature river reached an unprecedented level and unleashed floodwaters that tore through the surrounding areas, sweeping away houses, washing out bridges and roads, stranding tourists and residents, and prompting frantic helicopter and raft rescues.
The flooding across parts of southern Montana and northern Wyoming from days of rain and a rapidly melting snowpack indefinitely closed one of the nation’s most iconic parks just as a summer tourist season that draws millions of visitors was ramping up.
Instead of marveling at the site of massive elk, grizzlies and bison roaming freely, burbling thermal pools and the regular blast of Old Faithful’s geyser, tourists found themselves witnessing nature at its most unpredictable as the Yellowstone River crested in a chocolate brown torrent that washed away anything in its path.
“It is just the scariest river ever,” Kate Gomez of Santa Fe, New Mexico, said Tuesday. “Anything that falls into that river is gone. The swells are huge, and it’s just mud and silt.”
[...]
https://apnews.com/article/floods-travel-montana-obituaries-evacuations-3753caa39435d9f3f45d8b582381a0c6
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