June is typically one of Yellowstone's busiest months. More than 4 million visitors were tallied by the park last year. The rains hit just as area hotels filled up in recent weeks with summer tourists. The flooding affected the rest of the park, too, with park officials warning of yet higher flooding and potential problems with water supplies and wastewater systems in developed areas. Yellowstone's northern roads may remain impassable for a substantial length of time. The Yellowstone River at Corwin Springs topped a record set in 1918. Heavy rain on top of melting mountain snow pushed the Yellowstone, Stillwater and Clarks Fork rivers to record levels Monday and triggered rock and mudslides, according to the National Weather Service. The flooding came as the Midwest and East Coast sizzle from a heat wave and other parts of the West burn from an early wildfire season amid a persistent drought that has increased the frequency and intensity of fires. We’re going to be cleaning up for a long time."Īt least 200 homes were flooded in Red Lodge and the town of Fromberg. "Yearbooks, pictures, clothes, furniture. "We lost all our belongings in the basement," Hoffman said as the pump removed a steady stream of water into her muddy backyard. Heidi Hoffman left early Monday to buy a sump pump in Billings, but by the time she returned, her basement was full of water. "They're looking to try to figure out how to hold things together."Ī house that was pulled into Rock Creek in Red Lodge, Mont., by raging floodwaters is seen on June 14, 2022.Įlectricity was restored by Tuesday, but there was still no running water in the affected neighborhood. "It's a Yellowstone town, and it lives and dies by tourism, and this is going to be a pretty big hit," he said. ![]() It hit the park as a summer tourist season that draws millions of visitors was ramping up during its 150th anniversary year.īusinesses in hard-hit Gardiner had just started really recovering from the tourism contraction brought by the coronavirus pandemic and were hoping for a good year, Berg said. They seem to be happening more and more frequently," he said.ĭays of rain and rapid snowmelt wrought havoc across parts of southern Montana and northern Wyoming, where it washed away cabins, swamped small towns and knocked out power. "I've heard this is a 1,000-year event, whatever that means these days. The park could remain closed as long as a week, and northern entrances may not reopen this summer, Superintendent Cam Sholly said. The only visitors left in the massive park straddling three states were a dozen campers still making their way out of the backcountry. The unprecedented flooding drove more than 10,000 visitors out of the nation's oldest national park and damaged hundreds of homes in nearby communities, though remarkably no was reported hurt or killed. "A little bit ironic that this spectacular landscape was created by violent geologic and hydrologic events, and it's just not very handy when it happens while we're all here settled on it." "The landscape literally and figuratively has changed dramatically in the last 36 hours," said Bill Berg, a commissioner in nearby Park County. The historic floodwaters that raged through Yellowstone this week, tearing out bridges and pouring into nearby homes, pushed a popular fishing river off course - possibly permanently - and may force roadways nearly torn away by torrents of water to be rebuilt in new places. In just days, heavy rain and rapid snowmelt caused a dramatic flood that may forever alter the human footprint on the park's terrain and the communities that have grown around it. It took decades longer for humans to tame it enough for tourists to visit, often from the comfort of their cars. ![]() The forces of fire and ice shaped Yellowstone National Park over thousands of years.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |