Yellowstone National Park will remain closed to visitors until at least Wednesday due to dangerous flooding conditions, which have forced park evacuations and left some in surrounding communities without safe drinking water, according to officials.
All park entrances were closed to visitors on Monday afternoon, citing “record flooding events” and a forecast of more rain.
“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,” Yellowstone Superintendent Cam Sholly said Monday.
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Several cities in Montana’s Park County are also experiencing extensive flooding, which has washed out bridges and roads, making travel unsafe or evacuation impossible, Park County officials said on Facebook Monday. Due to a broken water main and submerged wells, officials have also issued warnings in many areas for residents to avoid drinking local water.
“The river has never been this high by my house before,” said Elizabeth Aluck, who lives in Park County’s Gardiner. Aluck told CNN on Monday that she is unable to evacuate because the roads and bridges surrounding her home have been washed out.
An Indiana family staying in a short-term rental cabin in Gardiner told CNN that they were supposed to leave Monday morning but were stranded due to flooding.
“The water levels were high on Saturday, but things have gotten rougher in the last 10-12 hours,” Parker Manning said. “Our exit would be north on 89, but those roads are currently all underwater.”
According to CNN meteorologist Brandon Miller, the Yellowstone River, which runs through the park and several Park County cities, reached a record high Monday due to recent heavy rainfall and significant runoff from melting snow in higher elevations.
The Yellowstone River gauge at Corwin Springs, Montana, reached 13.88 feet Monday afternoon, surpassing the previous high crest of 11.5 feet set in 1918, according to NOAA river gauge data. “The river is still rising near Livingston, and it is expected to crest between 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. on Monday,” Park County officials said on Facebook.
Extreme weather events have battered communities across the country in recent days, including thunderstorms that left nearly 300,000 customers without power in the Midwest, a tornado threat in Chicago, and a severe heat dome that has placed more than a third of the US population under heat alerts.
As floodwaters make several roads and bridges impassable, park and county officials are working to evacuate whoever they can and provide assistance to those who are unable to leave.
According to the Facebook post, the Park County Sheriff’s Department has issued a shelter in place order for those south of mile marker 52.5 on US Highway 89 South until 7 a.m. Monday.
According to the county, the National Guard and local search and rescue teams were assisting with evacuations and rescues throughout the county, including two air lifts and one swift water rescue.
Meanwhile, flooding has harmed several roads and bridges in Yellowstone, according to park officials. The park’s videos show sections of paved road that have been washed out or severely eroded.
Because of higher flood levels predicted and concerns about water and wastewater systems, the park began moving visitors out of the park’s southern loop on Monday, according to Sholly.
“We won’t know when the park will reopen until the flood waters recede and we can assess the damage throughout the park,” Sholly said. “The northern loop will most likely be closed for an extended period of time.”
According to Miller, precipitation in northwestern Wyoming and southern Montana has been more than 400 percent of the region’s average in June.
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The dramatic increase in rain has been accompanied by near-record temperatures in the region, causing snowmelt in high elevation areas, according to the National Weather Service in Riverton, Wyoming, said.
