Search and rescue teams in southern Montana have evacuated 87 people in the historic flooding of Yellowstone National Park, the state National Guard said Wednesday.
The military organization has confirmed one Tweet Helicopters flew at least 41 hours this week to the park and surrounding communities, as part of a collaborative effort between federal, state and local authorities. Evacuate visitors and residents From the area
Yellowstone – a vast protected area covering 2.2 million acres in Wyoming, Idaho and Montana – has been flooded in recent days. Scientists at the US Geological Survey (USGS) said the Yellowstone River in Billings had the highest flow recorded on Wednesday afternoon.
Floods forced the town of Billings, Montana, to shut down its water plant late Tuesday night.
In a few days, dramatic flooding could forever change the human footprint in the park’s terrain and the communities that grew up around it. Historic floodwaters passing through Yellowstone this week tore down bridges and flooded nearby homes, pushing a popular fishing river – possibly permanently – and floodwaters could force torn roads to rebuild in new locations.
“In the last 36 hours, the landscape has changed dramatically, literally and figuratively,” said Bill Berg, commissioner of nearby Park County. “It’s a bit ironic that this spectacular landscape was created by violent geographical and hydrological events, and it’s not very easy when it all happens when we all live in it.”
The floods swept away more than 10,000 visitors from the country’s oldest national park and Hundreds of homes have been damaged In nearby communities, however, no significant injuries or deaths have been reported. A dozen campers who had stopped touring the three states in the vast park were still exiting the backward country.
The park could remain closed for a week, and northern entrances may not reopen this summer, said Superintendent Cam Sholay.
“I’ve heard it’s a 1,000-year-old event, which is what it means today. They seem to be happening more and more frequently,” he said.
Matthew Brown / AP
Sholi said some weather forecasts included the possibility of more flooding this weekend.
Daytime rain and heavy snowfall wreaked havoc in parts of southern Montana and northern Wyoming, where it flooded cabins, flooded small towns and cut off electricity. It hit the park as a summer tourist season attracting millions of visitors as its 150th anniversary was growing.
Gardiner’s businesses were really recovering from the recent Coronavirus epidemic, and were hoping for a better year, Berg said.
“It’s a Yellowstone city, and it dies by living and tourism, and it’s going to be a very big hit,” he said. “They’re trying to figure out how to put things together.”
The worst damage has been done to the Yellowstone Gateway communities in the northern part of the park and in southern Montana. Pictures from the National Yellowstone National Park Service show mudslides, bridges and roads being cut off by churning the floodwaters of the Gardner and Lamar rivers.
At Red Lodge, the town of 2,100 which is a popular jumping-off point for a scenic route in the Yellowstone Highlands, a creek flowing out of the city jumped to its shores and swamped the main road, leaving Trout swimming in the sun a day later. The sky
Residents described a painful scene where water flowed from a trickle into a waterfall in a matter of hours.
The water knocked down telephone poles, knocked down bars, and dug deep holes in the ground around hundreds of homes. Even though the electricity service was running till Tuesday, drinking water has not reached the affected slums.
AP
Heidi Hoffman went to Billings on Monday morning to buy a sump pump, but when she returned, her basement was full of water.
“We lost all our belongings in the basement,” Hoffman said as the pump removed a steady stream of water from his muddy backyard. “Yearbook, pictures, clothes, furniture. We’ve been cleaning up for a long time. “
At least 200 homes were flooded in Red Lodge and Fromburg.
The floods occurred as heat waves on the Midwest and East Coast and other parts of the west continued to increase in frequency and intensity of fires amid a continuous drought caused by the early wildfire season. Smoke from a fire in Mount Flagstaff, Arizona, can be seen in Colorado.
The floods are not directly attributed to climate change, said Rick Thoman, a climate expert at Fairbanks University in Alaska. . “
“Will Yellowstone repeat itself in five or 50 years? Maybe not, but somewhere there will be something equal or even more extreme,” he said.
Heavy rainfall over the mountain melted snow, pushing the Yellowstone, Stillwater and Clark Fork rivers to record levels on Monday and triggering rock and mudslides, according to the National Weather Service. Corwin Springs’ Yellowstone River topped the record set in 1918.
The roads north of Yellowstone may remain inaccessible for a considerable time. The floods also affected the rest of the park, with park officials warning of further flooding and potential problems with water supply and wastewater systems in developed areas.
In recent weeks, hotels in the area have been flooded by summer tourists. Last year, more than 4 million visitors came to the park. The wave of tourists does not subside until the fall, and June is usually one of the busiest months in Yellowstone.
Mark Taylor, owner and chief pilot of Rocky Mountain Rotors, said his company had airlifted about 40 paying customers from Gardiner in the past two days, including two women who were “very pregnant”.
Taylor spoke while carrying a family of four Texas adults who wanted to do some more sightseeing before heading home.
“I imagine they’re going to rent a car and they’re going to check out other parts of Montana – somewhere dry,” he said.
In one of Gardiner’s cabins, Parker Manning of Terry Haute, Indiana, got a close-up view of the Yellowstone River floodwaters just outside his door. All the trees and a lone kayaker were also streamed.
Emma H. Tobin / AP
Earlier in the evening, he filmed the water when the water receded on the opposite shore where a large gray house that had been the parking lot before the workers evacuated was sitting indefinitely.
At the roar of the river, the house fell into the water and was pulled into the stream. Sholay said it swam 5 miles before sinking.
The cities of Cook City and Silvergate, east of the park, were also separated by floodwaters, which also made drinking water unsafe. People left the hospital and lower areas in Livingston.
In southwestern Montana, 68 people were rescued by a raft on a campground after flooding on the Stillwater River. Some roads in the area have been closed and residents displaced.
In the town of Nye, at least four cabins have fallen into the Stillwater River, including the one Shelley Blazina said she owns.
“It was my sanctuary,” she said Tuesday. “Yesterday I was shocked. Today I am in deep grief.”