Yellowstone flooding – live: Tourists warned National Park closed for months as video shows perilous escape

The US National Guard has been among the agencies to respond to flooding in the Yellowstone area with helicopters from the Montana National Guard (MTNG) deployed to Roscoe and Cooke City, where 12 people were evacuated on Monday.

On Tuesday, the MTNG said it was also called to an area of Rosebud Lake for another search and rescue effort. More helicopter rescues could be carried out across the state.

A simple vacation for an Omaha couple turned into a nightmare after they got stuck in Montana due to floods in Yellowstone National Park.

Max Ridgway said what he saw was something out of a movie and he never thought that their vacation would take such a turn.

“I never thought this stuff still happened. I never knew that highways got wiped out due to flooding,” Mr Ridgway told KETV7.

“We tried to leave town yesterday morning and we made it halfway out of town and they turned us back around because the bridge way out,” he added.

“The hotels are setting up emergency places for people to sleep at. The boy scouts came out and they’re handing out food. They have a booth out here so the community is really pulling together to accommodate everybody.”

At least 200 homes were flooded in Montana, where residents describe the situation as harrowing with water rising from a trickle to a torrent over just a few hours.

The water toppled telephone poles, knocked over fences and carved deep fissures in the ground through a neighbourhood of hundreds of houses. Power was restored by Tuesday, though there was still no running water in the affected neighbourhood.

Heidi Hoffman left early Monday to buy a sump pump in Billings, but by the time she returned her basement was full of water.

“We lost all our belongings in the basement,” Ms Hoffman said as the pump removed a steady stream of water into her muddy backyard. “Yearbooks, pictures, clothes, furniture. We are going to be cleaning up for a long time,” she told Associated Press.

Water levels at the Yellowstone park should slowly recede throughout the night, the Yellowstone county sheriff’s office said on Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service.

“The Billings Water gauge appears to be malfunctioning as of 10.30pm statistical reliable data is currently unavailable,” the sheriff’s office said.

“They are currently holding. We have been advised west of Billings river levels on both the Yellowstone and Clark Fork are dropping.”

The Yellowstone River in Corwin Springs, Montana surpassed its previous record high water level by at least two feet, according to the US Geological Survey.

The flooding was due to a combination of intense rainfall and heavy snowmelt.

By Tuesday at 9am, some parts of the park had recorded more than 1.6 inches of rain, National Weather Service meteorologist Jason Straub told WyoFile, adding that daily rainfall more than one inch is very uncommon.

And Reuters reported that the area also saw warmer temperatures over the past few days, which accelerated snowmelt from the park’s high peaks. Per US government data, the area currently has a lot of water piled up in the snowpack. Images from the park this week showed road and building damage as water poured into valleys and pushed rivers far above normal levels.

The climate crisis is expected to increase the frequency and severity of events like rainstorms in many parts of the country. Over the past few decades, more and more precipitation across the US has come via extreme one-day events, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency.

Ethan Freedman has more.

Some of the worst damage happened in the northern part of the park and Yellowstone’s gateway communities in southern Montana.

National Park Service photos of northern Yellowstone showed a slide, washed-out bridges and roads undercut by churning floodwaters of the Gardner and Lamar rivers.

The flooding cut off road access to Gardiner, Montana, a town of about 900 people near the confluence of the Yellowstone and Gardner rivers, just outside Yellowstone’s busy North Entrance. Cooke City was also isolated by floodwaters and evacuations were also issued for residents in Livingston.

Officials in Park County said on Facebook Monday evening that extensive flooding throughout the county also had made drinking water unsafe in many areas. Evacuations and rescues were ongoing and officials urged people who were in a safe place to stay put overnight.

The Montana National Guard said Monday it sent two helicopters to southern Montana to help with the evacuations.

Cory Mottice, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Billings, Montana, said rain is not in the immediate forecast, and cooler temperatures will lessen the snowmelt in coming days.“This is flooding that we’ve just never seen in our lifetimes before.”

All visitors except a group of backpackers have now been evacuated after Yellowstone National Park was hit by a record deluge, according to officials.

Around 10,000 tourists to the world-famous park were asked to leave after roads and bridges were washed out as “unprecedented” flooding devastated areas of southern Montana.

Superintendent Cam Sholly told reporters that just one group of campers now remains in the park’s backcountry as officials take stock of the scope of damage that has been done.

There have not been any reports of any deaths caused directly by the flooding. Authorities say it is unclear if a body found in the Yellowstone River near Bozeman, Montana, is connected to the bad weather or not.

Graeme Massie reports.

Authorities on Monday announced that the northern portion of the Yellowstone National Park will likely remain closed for a “substantial length of time” due to severe damage caused by the deluge.“

Visitors traveling to park soon must stay informed about current situation, roads and weather,” it said on Twitter.

A record number of visitors flocked to Yellowstone National Park last year despite fewer hotel rooms and campsites being available due to the Covid-19 pandemic and construction projects.

About 4.86 million visits were tallied in 2021, breaking the prior record set in 2016. It’s a million more people than visited in 2020.

Known for its wolves, bears and other wildlife and thermal features such as the Old Faithful geyser, Yellowstone will mark its 150th anniversary in 2022. It straddles the borders of northwestern Wyoming, southern Montana and eastern Idaho.

As the Yellowstone disaster proves, climate change will mean more flooding, and an emphasis on adaptation in addition to cutting emissions.

Last year, we had a look at the importance of readiness and climate adaptation in England, as the UK faces historic flood dangers of its own.