CODY, Wyoming: Record flooding and rockslides unleashed by an unprecedented burst of heavy rains prompted the rare closure on Monday (Jun 13) of all five entrances to Yellowstone National Park at the start of the summer tourist season, the park superintendent said.
The entire park, spanning parts of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho, will remain closed to visitors, including those with lodging and camping reservations, at least through Wednesday, as officials inspect damage to roads, bridges and other facilities.
The closures come as Yellowstone was gearing up to celebrate its 150th anniversary year, and as local communities heavily dependent on tourism were counting on a rebound following COVID-19 travel restrictions over the past two summers.
All five park entrances were closed to inbound traffic for the first summer since a series of devastating wildfires in 1988. The National Park Service said it was working to evacuate visitors and staff remaining at various locations, especially in the hardest-hit northern flank of Yellowstone.
“It is likely that the northern loop will be closed for a substantial amount of time,” the park superintendent, Cam Sholly, said in a statement.
The “gateway” community of Gardiner, Montana, just beyond the park’s northern boundary and home to many of Yellowstone’s workers, was cut off by a mudslide to the north and washed-out road surfaces to the south, according to the National Park Service.
Aerial footage released by the Park Service showed large swaths of the winding North Entrance Road between Gardiner and park headquarters in Mammoth Hot Springs, Wyoming, carved away by surging floodwaters along the Gardner River – washouts that will likely take months to fully repair.
Power outages were scattered throughout the park, and preliminary assessments showed numerous roadways across Yellowstone either washed away or covered in rocks and mud, with a number of bridges also damaged, the agency said.
For all the latest world News Click Here
