Topline
Authorities have closed off the entrances to Yellowstone National Park until at least Wednesday and begun evacuating some portions of the park due to heavy flooding and the risk of rockslides, as multiple regions of the United States contend with severe weather.
A bridge was washed out due to flooding at Rescue Creek in Yellowstone National Park on Monday.
Key Facts
The National Park Service shuttered Yellowstone’s entrances for all visitors—including tourists with overnight reservations—late Monday morning, citing “rockslides and mudslides on roadways from recent unprecedented amounts of rainfall and flooding.”
By Monday afternoon, the park said it will cut off all inbound traffic for at least the next two days, while staff assess washed-out bridges and damaged roads.
Park superintendent Cam Sholly said in a statement officials are evacuating the northern part of the park, and will begin moving tourists out of Yellowstone’s southern loop road—home to attractions like the Old Faithful geyser—later Monday.
What To Watch For
Sholly said areas of the park near its northern loop road will probably remain closed for a “substantial amount of time” due to severe flooding.
Tangent
The closures come as Yellowstone enters its busy summer season. Yellowstone averaged more than 30,000 daily recreational visits last June, marking the busiest June on record for a national park that typically records over 4 million annual visitors.
Key Background
The United States has been buffeted by a spate of severe weather in recent days. The National Weather Service has instituted a flood warning for a region of Wyoming that includes Yellowstone until Tuesday, noting some rivers that pass through the park could face flooding due to higher-than-usual rainfall and melting snow, and the Pacific Northwest experienced heavy rain last week. Meanwhile, a heat wave enveloped large swaths of the Southwestern United States and Texas on Friday and Saturday and helped set record temperatures in some cities, and parts of the Midwest are now under heat warnings and advisories as the wave pushes east. New Mexico, Arizona and California are also each contending with several large active wildfires, spurring evacuation orders in some communities.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/joewalsh/2022/06/13/entrances-to-yellowstone-closed-amid-unprecedented-flooding-and-mudslides/