Story at a glance
- A mixture of melting snow and rainfall caused rivers and streams to flood at Yellowstone National Park on Sunday.
- The “unprecedented” flooding along with mudslides and rockslides caused multiple roads and bridges to be damaged or completely washed away.
- While the south, west and eastern entrances to the park could open as early as next week, the northern entrance could remain closed for “a substantial amount of time,” the park’s superintendent said.
As major flood recovery efforts continue, Yellowstone National Park will most likely have a limited reopening next week.
Starting on Sunday, an unprecedented amount of rainfall caused flooding, rockslides and mudslides in the park damaging critical infrastructure and forcing the park to close.
The flooding also resulted in the evacuation of 10,000 park visitors, according to the Associated Press.
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Water levels remain high in the park but have gone down “substantially” over the last 24 hours, according to Yellowstone’s website.
While all five park entrances are still closed, park officials are aiming to reopen West, South and East entrances by next week. But the northern part of the park, in Gardiner, Montana, will stay closed for the near future due to extreme damage to park infrastructure and multiple roads being washed away.
“We have made tremendous progress in a very short amount of time but have long way to go,” said Superintendent Cam Sholly in an update on Friday. “All emergency and life safety objectives within the park have been accomplished or stabilized within the first 96 hours of the flood event, without major injury or death. We have an aggressive plan for recovery in the north and resumption of operations in the south.”
The 2.2 million acre park is one of the country’s most popular tourist destinations attracting a record-breaking 4,860,537 last year. Those that are interested in visiting Yellowstone this summer should monitor road conditions, the park said, and check back for updates on flood recovery efforts and entrance opening.
The extent of the flooding’s damage can be seen in recently released photographs uploaded to the park’s Flickr account.
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