CNN
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All entrances to Yellowstone National Park are temporarily closed due to flood damage to roads and bridges, but park officials say the northern part of the park can remain closed, especially for “significant periods”. Said on Tuesday.
“Many parts of the road (northern part of the park) are completely gone and it will take a lot of time and effort to rebuild,” the news release said. “… The road section north of Yellowstone may not be reopened this season due to the time it takes to repair it.”
Dangerous floods caused by heavy rains and rapid snowmelt began to hit parks and counties in southern Montana on Monday, flushing and eroding roads and bridges, causing widespread damage to homes and businesses. Gave.
The park on Monday closed all five entrances to Yellowstone in Montana and Wyoming, and there was no solid date for reopening, some to prevent things from getting worse and people getting stuck.
And park officials have already told visitors to leave – more than 10,000 people have left the park since Monday, park director Kam Sholy said on Tuesday.
“These record levels make this event a flood of 500 years,” according to a Facebook post from a public works official in Billings, Montana.
According to CNN meteorologist Brandon Miller, some of the rivers are beginning to recede due to cold and dry weather, but temperatures are expected to rise later this week and weekends, resulting in increased snowmelt runoff. , Floods may increase.
“Until conditions are improved and the park’s infrastructure is evaluated, there will be no inbound visitor traffic at any of the five entrances to the park, including those with accommodation and camp reservations,” said the park. Release states.
The rapid deterioration of Yellowstone’s road conditions forced some visitors, including CNN’s director and producer Tim Carter’s parents, to evacuate miserably.
“It was really scary because the water was already swirling around the bridge when we were over it,” Martha Carter said. “Later, I learned that it was washed away.”
On the other hand, in some parts of Montana, floods made travel impossible or unsafe and impaired water supply, resulting in a shortage of electricity and safe drinking water.
Montana Governor Greg Gianforte declared a state-wide disaster on Tuesday, publication He will seek a swift presidential disaster declaration to help cover the costs of recovery.
Dangerous floods affect communities across the United States, including violent heat waves affecting more than 100 million people and severe storms that have lost hundreds of thousands of people in the Midwest and the Ohio River Valley. It’s just one of those extreme weather events. ..
A river flooded with rain and snow, including the Yellowstone River, which flows northwest through Yellowstone Park, Wyoming, and then north and east through several nearby Montana communities.
Floods washed away parts of the road, especially in the northern part of the park, flooding homes, businesses and infrastructure in southern Montana on Monday, forcing many families to evacuate. In the city of Gardiner, Montana, the gateway to the northern entrance to the park, a video from witnesses showed that the building had collapsed into the Yellowstone River on Monday.
In Park County, Montana, including Gardiner, at least two homes collapsed into an invading river, flooding numerous homes and businesses, county disaster emergency services manager Greg Coleman told CNN Wednesday. ..
For some, roads and bridges were temporarily impassable by floods, sometimes left trapped in the absence of clean water and electricity.
The Montana National Guard used four helicopters on Monday and Tuesday to assist in evacuation in the affected areas, and sent soldiers to the city of Red Lodge to set up a command center for search and rescue operations. Said. The guards have been using helicopters to rescue 87 people in south-central Montana since Monday, he said on Wednesday.
The Montana helicopter company has flown about 40 people from Gardiner, which was temporarily isolated by the flood, Rocky Mountain Rotor Laura Jones told CNN.
In the Absaroky community in southern Montana, along a tributary of the Yellowstone River, the long-awaited goal of resident Tracy Planichek and her husband to have a new home when flood threats force them to evacuate. Achieved.
Now she told CNN, she desperately wants it to avoid the destruction seen in other homes, and some of them were swept away. “(We) couldn’t afford a new home,” she said. “It is at the top of the lane and wants our house to be there by the miracle of God.”
The road from Livingston to Gardiner was reopened on Tuesday due to local traffic, goods and services, but “serious damage” remains, Park County Sheriff Brad Bichler said.
Flood waves were still moving east along the Yellowstone River on Wednesday, threatening further problems in southern Montana.
By early Wednesday, a large flood from the river had been reported in Billings, a drive approximately 175 miles east of Gardiner. According to the National Weather Service, the Billings River surpassed previous records of 15 feet around 4 pm on Tuesday.
“The height of the river is a bit uncertain, as floods affect the gauge a bit at these higher levels, but we haven’t seen a downward trend yet,” said the Billings service office. Tweeted at the beginning of Wednesday..
On Tuesday, fields and streets flooded along the river just outside Billings. Image posted on Facebook by the Yellowstone County Sheriff’s Office show. One photo shows two people walking in the deep sea of the calf in the neighborhood.
Billings public works officials said they had decided to close the aquatic plant facility on Tuesday night after the river’s water level exceeded 16 feet due to the Yellowstone River flood, according to a Facebook post from the agency.
“As of 8:30 am on Wednesday, the water level of the plant has reached above 16 feet. The river must be below 15 feet for the plant to function effectively,” officials said in a post. Told.
Public works director Devi Melling said on Wednesday that no one planned a 500-year event when the facility was designed and acknowledged the diligence of the facility’s operations team.
She added that the plant would not return to “normal operation” until the river level dropped.
Meling also said that all reservoirs are full and the plant has water for the community for about a day to a day and a half. Park director Mike Pig said the fire trucks were filled with water and all city parks were shut down.
The river should peak there on Wednesday, but this weekend attention will be paid to the high temperatures that can cause more snowmelt and floods in the area.
Billing approaches record temperatures on Fridays and Saturdays in the late 90s, with higher elevations in the 1960s and 70s. This will be warm enough to melt the rest of the snow and lead to additional river rises over the weekend. And it could rain more in the area on Sundays.
Floods were caused by heavy weekend rains and snow spills in the Beatus and Absaroka Ranges, which straddle the border between Montana and Wyoming.
The National Weather Service of Billings said on Tuesday that the combination of rain and snowmelt created “a total water event of at least 4 to 9 inches.”
According to CNN meteorologists, its spills are similar to areas that receive two to three times normal June precipitation in just three days.
The National Park Service said in a news release that the park moved all visitors away from accommodations and campgrounds and left the park to prevent anyone from getting stuck. According to Shory, the average number of visitors to the park in June is between 15,000 and 20,000.
The park has also closed the backcountry of Yellowstone and is in contact with local groups.
“We know or know the whereabouts of all backcountry users currently in Yellowstone,” Sholly said, pointing out that one group remains in the northern range. He said helicopter evacuation was not necessary.
According to Shory, the floods have not caused any known injuries or deaths in the park, and authorities do not believe the animals in the park were seriously affected.
The loop on the south side of the park “looks less affected than the road on the north side.” The team tries to determine when the loop can be resumed. But officials expect even that loop to remain closed until at least Sunday, the park’s liberation said.