Yellowstone closes for first time in over 3 decades due to extreme flooding [Video]

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• Yellowstone National Park will be closed to visitors at least through Wednesday after it was hit by catastrophic flooding.
• Park officials said the unprecedented rainfall and flooding led to “extremely hazardous conditions” and power outages.
• The Yellowstone River at Corwin Springs reached six feet between Sunday and Monday, the highest recorded level since 1918.

The Yellowstone National Park has been closed to visitors at least through Wednesday after record rainfall led to “extremely hazardous conditions, according to a news release issued by the park on Monday.

The park has not reported any injuries or deaths.

In a statement, park superintendent Cam Sholly said the closures were due to “record flooding events and more precipitation in the forecast. Our first priority has been to evacuate the northern section of the park where we have multiple road and bridge failures, mudslides and other issues.”

According to a report from The Washington Post, the Yellowstone River at Corwin Springs, Montana, reached six feet between Sunday and Monday. That’s the river’s highest recorded level since 1918.

The flooding also cut off road access to Gardiner, Montana, the Associated Press reported.

“The community of Gardiner is currently isolated, and we are working with the county and State of Montana to provide necessary support to residents, who are currently without water and power in some areas,” Sholly said Monday. 

Gardiner resident Elizabeth Aluck told CNN that the river “has never been this high before” by her house. She was not able to evacuate because the roads and bridges in the area had been washed out.

A video posted to Twitter by the National Park Service shows areas of the park’s North Entrance Road “eroded and washed out in several places” due to the high water levels from the river running beside it. 

Current conditions of Yellowstone’s North Entrance Road through the Gardner Canyon between Gardiner, Montana, and Mammoth Hot Springs.

We will continue to communicate about this hazardous situation as more information is available. More info: https://t.co/mymnqGvcVB pic.twitter.com/S5ysi4wf8a— Yellowstone National Park (@YellowstoneNPS) June 13, 2022

Cory Mottice, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Billings, Montana, told the AP that the severe flooding was caused by the snow that’s still melting from the tops of the mountains. 

“It’s a lot of rain, but the flooding wouldn’t have been anything like this if we didn’t have so much snow,” Mottice said. “This is flooding that we’ve just never seen in our lifetimes before.”

Source: PEOPLE.Com