The floods wreaking havoc in Montana showed no signs of slowing on Thursday after rivers across the state overflowed because of heavy rain in the past week. According to the WSJ, Since Friday, Montana has been thrashed by a combination of unseasonable events, including heavy rain and later-than-normal snowmelt.
The rain was driven by an atmospheric river, which is a ribbon of moisture that sweeps through the air and unleashes heavy rain when it cools. Yellowstone National Park could be closed ‘indefinitely’ as devastating flooding continues to ravage the towns, roads, and bridges along the Yellowstone River.
Park officials characterized the severe flooding tearing through the region as a once in a ‘thousand-year event,’ that could alter the course of the Yellowstone river and surrounding landscapes forever. Officials say that the river’s volume is flowing 20,000 cubic feet per second faster than the previous record measured in the 90s.
According to the Daily Mail, 10,000 tourists were evacuated – including a dozen trapped campers who were rescued by helicopter – emptying the park completely of all visitors. Officials warned on Tuesday that local drinking water has become unsafe, and to be on alert for displaced wildlife.
All entrances to the park were closed on Tuesday, and though park services say some southern roads may open in a week, they predicted that the northern roads will be closed through the fall.
Houses in surrounding communities have been flooded or washed away by streams that turned into raging rivers, roads have been carved away, and bridges have collapsed into the torrent. The Governor of Montana, Greg Gianforte, declared a statewide disaster.
‘All park entrances and roads are temporarily closed due to extremely hazardous conditions from recent flooding,’ reads a warning at the top of Yellowstone National Park’s website, ‘The backcountry is also closed at this time.’
In a statement issued Tuesday on its website, the park warned that its northern portion likely to remain closed for a ‘substantial length of time,’ citing the severe damages to vital infrastructures within the park. The statement describes lengths of road that are ‘completely gone,’ and will require extensive time and effort to repair or rebuild entirely.
On top of all of this, the largest city in the state of Montana faces running out of fresh water within 36 hours after Billings’ only local treatment plant was overwhelmed by the devastating flood waters that have closed Yellowstone National Park.
Billings has just a 24-to 36-hour supply of water and officials asked its 110,000 residents to conserve after water levels became too high for it to function. The water is shown clearly destroying a red gantry that allows treatment plant employees to access the main building. Officials insisted that the water is still safe to drink, but is in low supply.
Heavy weekend rains and melting mountain snow had the Yellowstone River flowing at a historically high level of 16 feet as it raced past Billings. Video showed raging waters that rushed through Yellowstone National Park and surrounding communities earlier this week moving through Montana’s largest city, flooding farms and ranches, and forcing the shutdown of its treatment plant.
The city gets its water from the river and was forced to shut down its treatment plant at about 9:30 a.m. because it can’t operate effectively with water levels that high. ‘None of us planned a 500-year flood event on the Yellowstone when we designed these facilities,’ said Debi Meling, the city’s public works director. The water plant reopened but at an extremely low capacity late Wednesday night, according to KTVQ. Conservation orders remain in place.
The city also stopped watering parks and boulevards, and its fire department was filling its trucks with water from the Yellowstone River. Cory Mottice, with the National Weather Service in Billings, said the river was expected to crest Wednesday evening and drop below minor flood stage, 13.5 feet, by mid-to-late Thursday.
The unprecedented and sudden flooding that raged through Yellowstone earlier this week drove all of the more than 10,000 visitors out of the nation’s oldest park, which remains closed. It damaged hundreds of homes in nearby communities, though remarkably no one was reported hurt or killed. It also pushed a popular fishing river off course – possibly permanently – and may force roadways torn away by torrents of water to be rebuilt a safer distance away.
