A road in Yellowstone National Park partially collapsed due to flooding Monday. Credit: CNN
Yellowstone National Park will remain closed to visitors through at least Wednesday (June 15) due to dangerous flooding conditions, which have prompted park evacuations and left some in surrounding communities trapped without safe drinking water, officials say.
According to CNN, the park announced Monday afternoon that all park entrances were closed to visitors, citing “record flooding events” and a forecast of more rain to come.
“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 in a statement Monday.
Immediately north of the Yellowstone, several cities in Montana’s Park County are also experiencing extensive flooding, which has washed out bridges and roads, making it unsafe to travel or impossible to evacuate, Park County officials said on Facebook Monday. Officials have also issued warnings in many areas for residents to avoid drinking local water due to a broken water main and submerged wells.
The Yellowstone River, which runs through the park and several Park County cities, swelled to a record high Monday due to recent heavy rainfall and significant runoff from melting snow in higher elevations, according to CNN meteorologist Brandon Miller.
The Yellowstone River gauge at Corwin Springs, Montana, reached 13.88 feet Monday afternoon, surpassing the historical high crest of 11.5 feet from 1918, NOAA river gauge data shows. “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.
Across the nation in recent days, extreme weather events have battered communities, 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 left more than a third of the US population under heat alerts.
