Yellowstone Floods Wipe Out Roads, Bridges, Strand Visitors –

Elena, mon. (AP) – Massive floods on Monday devastated Yellowstone National Park and surrounding communities, wiped out roads and bridges, cut off electricity and forced visitors to leave parts of the cult park during the summer tourist season.

All entrances to Yellowstone were closed due to flooding caused by heavy rain and melting snow, and park staff pulled tourists from the hardest-hit areas. No injuries were reported.

The worst damage occurred in Yellowstone Gate communities north of the park and in southern Montana. Photos from the National Park Service in North Yellowstone showed landslides, a bridge over the swept away river, and roads badly damaged by flooding from the Gardner and Lamar Rivers.

The floods disrupted the road to Gardiner, Montana, a town of about 900 people near the confluence of the Yellowstone and Gardner Rivers at the crowded entrance on the northern side of Yellowstone.

In Gardiner’s cabin, Parker Manning of Terra House, Indiana, saw the water rise and the river bank collapsed into the floodwaters of the raging Yellowstone River near its gates.

“We set all the trees and debris floating in the river in motion,” Manning told The Associated Press. “Saw a lonely crazy kayer come out, who was pretty mad.”

The Yellowstone River in Corwin Springs rose to a height of 13.88 feet (4.2 meters) on Monday, from its previous record of 11.5 feet (3.5 meters) in 1918, according to the National Weather Service.

Flooding flooded Red Lodge Street, home to 2100 Montana City residents, a famous stepping stone for the beautiful, winding routes to the top of Yellowstone. Twenty-five miles (40 miles) northeast of Juliet, Kristan Apodaka wiped away her tears as she stood across a street from a destroyed bridge. The Billings Gazette reports this.

The wooden cupboard owned by his grandmother, who died in March, was flooded as well as the park where Apodaka’s wife proposed.

“I am the sixth generation. “This is our house,” he said. “This is the bridge I actually crossed yesterday. My mom removed it at 3am before washing it. “

Yellowstone officials have evacuated from the northern part of the park, where roads may remain impassable for long periods of time, park supervisor Kam Sholi said in a statement.

But the floods have also affected the rest of the park, with park officials warning of further flooding and potential problems in areas with water supply and wastewater systems.

“We don’t know when the park will open until the flood subsides and we can assess the damage to the entire park,” Sholi said in a statement.

The park gate will be closed until at least Wednesday, officials said.

The rains came as the tourist summer season increased. June, when the annual surge to over 3 million visitors began, which didn’t subside until the fall, was one of the busiest months in Yellowstone.

Winter debris – in the form of snow still melting and coming out of the mountains – is a particularly bad time for heavy rain.

Saturday, Sunday and Monday it rained 2.5 inches (6 inches) in Yellowstone. The Beirut Mountains are 4 inches (10 centimeters) northeast of Yellowstone, according to the National Weather Service.

“It’s raining hard, but it wouldn’t be that flooding if we didn’t have that much snow,” said Corey Motis, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Billings, Montana. “It’s a flood we’ve never seen in our lives.”

Rainfall is expected, while low temperatures will reduce snow melting in the coming days, Motis said.

In south-central Montana, floods from the Stilwater River confined 68 people to one camp. On Monday, agencies and crew of Stillwater County Emergency Services, including the Stillwater Mine, rescued people from Woodbine Campground using sticks. Several roads in the region have been closed due to floods and residents have been evacuated.

“We will review the loss of homes and buildings when the water runs out,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement.

Floods occurred in other parts of the U.S. Burn in hot and dry weather. More than 100 million Americans have been warned to stay indoors as a heatwave hits states, stretching from parts of the Gulf Coast to the Great Lakes and east to Carolina.

Scientists say that climate change is responsible for more severe and often extreme events such as hurricanes, droughts, floods and forest fires, although individual weather events are usually not directly related to climate change. climate without extensive research.

Associated Press writers Thomas Peippert in Denver and Mead Gruver in Fort Collins, Colorado contributed to this report.