![]() ![]() However, there are several areas on that loop that are potentially compromised that we're evaluating." " The damage on the southern loop is much less than the northern loop. Everything from the roads to the bridges to wastewater treatment facilities and those types of things," Sholly said in describing the decision to close the park, a closure likely to run into next week. "Once we got the visitors yesterday out of the northern loop, we proceeded to start evaluating more carefully what the impacts of flooding were on the southern loop. Monday dawned with the need to evacuate park visitors from the northern half of the park, that section north of Old Faithful, Canyon, and Madison, as daylight revealed through the rain showers the catastrophic, and extensive, damage. ![]() Park Service employee housing in Gardiner, MT, got washed down the Gardner River/NPS "It's a little bit ironic that this spectacular landscape was created by violent geologic and hydrologic events, and it's just never handy when it happens while we're all here settled on it," said Berg. This was to be a celebratory year for Yellowstone, which is marking its 150th birthday, but the storm demonstrated once again that nature has always had the final say over life on this landscape. ![]() A house owned by the National Park Service in Gardiner that six park workers and their families called home was pulled into the raging waters and washed five miles downstream. Water and power lines around Mammoth also had been impacted. The park road east of Mammoth Hot Springs and Tower through the Lamar Valley to Silvergate and Cooke City in Montana also had been washed away in several places. There existed the possibility that the sewer line that ran from Mammoth Hot Springs beneath the Gardner River to the town of Gardiner had been broken and was leaking raw sewage. The five-mile-long road from Gardiner, Montana, through the park's North Entrance and down to Mammoth Hot Springs had been erased in multiple spots by the floodwaters and raised the question of whether it could, or even should, be rebuilt in the same riverside corridor. The news conference, which also involved Park County, Montana, Commissioner Bill Berg, came as the full extent of the storm that dumped 2-3 inches of rain on top of 5.5 inches of snow that quickly melted was still being measured. "If we get warming temperatures and the right mixture of precipitation like we did Sunday, we could have another flood event coming to Yellowstone in the upcoming four or five days." "There are some conflicting predictions about this weekend and whether or not we may have another high-water event coming," said Sholly, pointing out that there remained another foot of snow in Yellowstone's high country yet to melt. Washed away roads, damaged water and sewer systems, and other unknown infrastructure and trail damage from what might have been a "once-in-a-thousand-year-storm" greatly complicates how soon Yellowstone National Park can reopen, and in what condition, and the odds are long that it will fully return to normal this year, Superintendent Cam Sholly told a national audience of journalists Tuesday during an hour-long Zoom call.Īnd while the flooding from heavy rains Sunday night into Monday, and the snowmelt that precipitation generated, was subsiding Tuesday, the weather forecast raised the worrying possibility of more rain this coming weekend to compound the park's problems, he said. Oil Trains Pose A Significant Threat To National Parksįlood damage to one section of Yellowstone's Northeast Entrance road/NPS.The Care And Keeping Of History Within The National Park System.Wastewater And Sewer Facilities Failing In National Parks.Private Philanthropy Fills The Gaps Of Deferred Maintenance.National Park Roads And Bridges Impacted By Lack Of Maintenance.NPS Is Running $670 Million Behind On Caring For Maintained Landscapes.Mixing Energy Development And National Parks.Maintenance Backlog Impacts Historic Structures In National Parks.Lack Of Dollars Crippling National Park Facilities For Staff And Visitors.Invasive Species A Plague On the National Park System.Groups Continually At Work To Acquire Private Lands Key To National Parks.Backlog Of Maintenance Needs Creates Risks In National Parks.Tackling The Maintenance Backlog In The Park System.Coping With 21st Century Wildfires In The Parks.Mixing Oil And Water At Big Cypress National Preserve.Not Enough Water And Too Many Invasives At Glen Canyon National Recreation Area.Colorado River Series-Canyonlands National Park.Special Reports Toggle submenu for Special Reports.Understanding Climate Change Impacts On National Parks.Get the Essential RVing Guide To The National Parks. ![]()
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