Record flooding forces Yellowstone park closure

CODY, Wyoming－Emergency crews scrambled on Tuesday to reopen roads and restore utilities in rural communities of Montana and Wyoming cut off by historic floods in the first natural disaster to force a summertime closure of Yellowstone National Park in 30 years.

Major sections of the park's northern half are expected to remain closed for the rest of the season, dealing an economic blow to adjacent gateway communities counting on a rebound in Yellowstone tourism for the park's 150th anniversary following two years of COVID-19 restrictions.

Montana Governor Greg Gianforte declared a statewide disaster, with rescue and relief efforts focused in three counties after days of record rainfall that triggered epic flooding, mudslides and rockfalls in the greater Yellowstone region.

The upheaval followed one of the region's wettest springs in many years and coincided with a sudden spike in summer temperatures that has hastened the runoff of melting snow in the park's higher elevations from late winter storms.

Record flooding and rockslides prompted park officials to shut down all five entrances to Yellowstone to inbound traffic on Tuesday, marking the park's first disaster-related closing in summer since wildfires roared through the area in 1988.

By Wednesday, all of Yellowstone's visitors－at least 10,000 people－had been safely evacuated, except for a dozen backcountry campers still making their way out on their own, said superintendent Cam Sholly in an online news briefing.

Sholly said the park's harder-hit northern tier would likely remain closed to visitors through the season. But the southern end of Yellowstone, encompassing Old Faithful Geyser and many of the park's other famous geothermal features, could reopen on a limited basis in a week or less, depending on how extensive the damage there turns out to be.

The park would probably explore a timed entry or reservation system to prevent overcrowding of the park's southern loop when it reopens.

No deaths or injuries from the flooding have been reported, but startling video footage showed an entire riverfront house being swept off its foundation and into the raging torrent of the Yellowstone River north of the park on Monday. Sholly said the house, in which six park employees residing there had evacuated hours before, floated down the river for 8 kilometers.

The 8,991-square-kilometer wilderness recreation area, largely in the northwest corner of Wyoming and extending into Montana and Idaho states, will remain closed to visitors through at least Wednesday, said park officials in a news release posted on the park's official website on Monday afternoon.

Summer is usually the busiest season in Yellowstone. The park attracted approximately 4.86 million visitors last year.

Agencies - Xinhua