Yellowstone Closed, All gates - Flooding, Mudslides

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Janet H

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The park has been temporarily closed at all gates due to flooding and rock slides. No inbound visitor traffic will be allowed into the park until conditions stabilize and the park can assess damage to roads and bridges and other facilities. This includes visitors with lodging and camping reservations.

UPDATE: All entrances to Yellowstone National Park CLOSED temporarily due to heavy flooding, rockslides, extremely hazardous conditions; Stay informed about road status and weather conditions - Yellowstone National Park (U.S. National Park Service)
 
Red Lodge has flood waters running 4’ down the streets. Cooke City, Silver Gate, and Gardiner are all cut off completely. It is a huge issue.
 
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We had a pretty good thunderstorm come through the Star Valley, WY headed that way. Local streams are running high and fast.
 
I saw that more rain is predicted. Some of the footages shows lots of the road destroyed in several places. Won't be a very quick fix I suspect. Very sad. We are hoping to go later in the summer. Fingers crossed.
 
The videos showing up on my feed are unbelievable. Entire two story buildings breaking apart, bridges floating down river, emergency evacuations including swift water rescues and helicopters. It includes a lot of area north of Yellowstone including Livingston. This is truly a major disaster that will take years to recover from.
 
Every time we read or hear of natural disasters like this makes me think three things
1) that I'm glad we're safe
2) I hope everyone else stays safe
3) Why do we keep having petty differences, when nature will beat us all EVERY TIME.
 
This is truly a major disaster that will take years to recover from.
Yes, we've seen that sort of thing in Colorado, with the Big Thompson flood in 1976 and again in 2013, each taking years for recovery. The one in 2013 was even worse, in the sense that flooding was more widespread than just the canyon, affecting much of the Front Range.
 
Saw drone footage last night on the news. Many roads and bridges washed out. Any place where the road was on the outside curve of the river, the road is gone.

It's going to take a long time to fix all the damage. Unless the damage is less than the drone footage leads you to believe, I don't see Yellowstone opening this summer.
 
Yes, we've seen that sort of thing in Colorado, with the Big Thompson flood in 1976 and again in 2013, each taking years for recovery. The one in 2013 was even worse, in the sense that flooding was more widespread than just the canyon, affecting much of the Front Range.
I remember the later occurrence. How long was it before Big Thompson opened up? I seem to remember 2 years. I would be amazed if the roads in northern Yellowstone are open much before that.
 
Lots of video footage popping up on Youtube, Facebook, etc. If that video footage is for real and accurate, it will take years to recover. :unsure:
 
Yes. My hometown, Red Lodge... what a unreal situation.. and all areas around us. It will take years to get the infrastructure back up. We lost dozens of bridges in our county and accessing all the infrastructure. On top of that, temps in 90s for us Friday, which is extremely warm for 5500' elevation AND it snowed at Cooke City last night. Our home is good but was scary! Keep safe in yout travels and I would advise staying away from this area until you see some positive posts. Today there is still water running down our main street!
 
I remember the later occurrence. How long was it before Big Thompson opened up? I seem to remember 2 years. I would be amazed if the roads in northern Yellowstone are open much before that.

Roads were washed out much as shown in some of the Yellowstone pix.

I don't recall how long, but several years- more than two, for sure. Even once they had a lot of the damage repaired, it was at least two (maybe more) years that some school children could be bused directly during the limited morning and evening time that Hwy 34 was open, but it was closed the rest of the the day so that school buses (and other traffic) that wasn't ready to go at the specified time had to go the long way 'round, thus adding a LOT of miles to their commute.

Here's a piece of what one web site had to say:

In the fall of 2013, devastating floods caused nearly $4 billion in widespread damage to critical infrastructure, transportation networks, homes and businesses across 24 counties in Colorado.
Especially destructive for mountain and rural corridors north of Denver, floods in the Big Thompson River canyon destroyed more than 10 miles of the U.S. Highway 34 roadway embankment, washed out homes and took the lives of two.
Due to road damages, residents in the canyon were cut off from emergency services and more than 2,000 people needed to be evacuated to safe areas via helicopter.
Some spots on the plains (in those 24 counties) have only recently (last year or two) opened up certain county roads and/or bridges, or finished repair on a number of other things.

143 people were killed in the 1976 flood (it's tight in that canyon) when "between 12 and 14 inches of rain fell over a four-hour period in the mountains below the resort town of Estes Park." In the 2013 one way fewer deaths, but the rain was also spread out over a much longer time.

I hope the Yellowstone one doesn't hurt as many people or cause as much damage, but it doesn't look good.
 
Most all damage was. in the north. The south may be able to open depending on assessment of conditions, but employees can drive out of the West entrance. Big question will be roads from Madison Junction and north to Norris or to Mammoth, flooding through there, but not sure about road or bridge damage.
From top of Continental Divide and west isn't as severe as it is up north.
New update, Gardiner now can travel to Livingston, Tourists only north, supplies and residents both ways. Still waiting to hear road conditions south from Mammoth.
 
Park posted this today. Sad for the folks living and depending on the tourists for livelihood.

I saw a red cross donation site.. I'll post it.

⚠️UPDATE (6/14 at 6:38 p.m.)⚠️
Northern portion of Yellowstone National Park likely to remain closed for a substantial length of time due to severely damaged, impacted infrastructure; Visitors traveling to park in coming weeks must stay informed about current situation, road and weather conditions.

- Aerial assessments conducted Monday, June 13, by Yellowstone show major damage to multiple sections of road between the North Entrance (Gardiner, Montana), Mammoth Hot Springs, Lamar Valley and Cooke City, Montana, near the Northeast Entrance.

- Many sections of road in these areas are completely gone and will require substantial time and effort to reconstruct.

- The National Park Service will make every effort to repair these roads as soon as possible; however, it is probable that road sections in northern Yellowstone will not reopen this season due to the time required for repairs.

- To prevent visitors from being stranded in the park if conditions worsen, the park in coordination with Yellowstone National Park Lodges made the decision to have all visitors move out of overnight accommodations (lodging and campgrounds) and exit the park.

- All entrances to Yellowstone National Park remain temporarily CLOSED while the park waits for flood waters to recede and can conduct evaluations on roads, bridges and wastewater treatment facilities to ensure visitor and employee safety.

- There will be no inbound visitor traffic at any of the five entrances into the park, including visitors with lodging and camping reservations, until conditions improve and park infrastructure is evaluated.

- The park’s southern loop appears to be less impacted than the northern roads and teams will assess damage to determine when opening of the southern loop is feasible. This closure will extend minimally through next weekend (June 19).

- Due to the northern loop being unavailable for visitors, the park is analyzing how many visitors can safely visit the southern loop once it’s safe to reopen. This will likely mean implementation of some type of temporary reservation system to prevent gridlock and reduce impacts on park infrastructure.

- At this time, there are no known injuries nor deaths to have occurred in the park as a result of the unprecedented flooding.

- Effective immediately, Yellowstone’s backcountry is temporarily closed while crews assist campers (five known groups in the northern range) and assess damage to backcountry campsites, trails and bridges.

- The National Park Service, surrounding counties and states of Montana and Wyoming are working with the park’s gateway communities to evaluate flooding impacts and provide immediate support to residents and visitors.

- Water levels are expected to recede today in the afternoon; however, additional flood events are possible through this weekend.

‼️ For more information about current conditions and how to stay informed, visit: go.nps.gov/220613

Photos:
1. Condition of North Entrance Road between Gardiner, Montana, and Mammoth Hot Springs (NPS / Doug Kraus)
2. Condition of Northeast Entrance Road (NPS / Jacob W. Frank)
 
My step mom lives in Missoula. Based on the news story I got a little worried. I spoke to her today. So far according to her Missoula is at "flood" level but so far they are fine there.

The concern is they are expecting increasing temps this week and into the 90's by the weekend with the implication of melting snowpack, of course.
 
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