Amazing Yellowstone flooding

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mdtrot
Posts: 144
Joined: Tue Jul 25, 2017 7:57 pm
Location: East Texas

Amazing Yellowstone flooding

Post by mdtrot »

This flooding is crazy, shutting down the entire park. Was anyone here in the park, or have any pictures or reports? Check out these incredible videos. Which road is that in the video that appears to be washed out for miles?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBJ0tuaEXKU&t=1s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBJ0tuaEXKU&t=1s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SVJUFTlfes

Also, will this affect GTNP?



RikWriter
Posts: 488
Joined: Tue Jul 25, 2017 8:36 pm

Re: Amazing Yellowstone flooding

Post by RikWriter »

That's the road from Mammoth to Gardiner. None of this should affect Grand Teton, to answer your other question.



RikWriter
Posts: 488
Joined: Tue Jul 25, 2017 8:36 pm

Re: Amazing Yellowstone flooding

Post by RikWriter »

I watched a press conference done by the park director today. He seems optimistic about getting the other entrances open very soon, but the NE entrance and the road from Tower to Cooke City sound like they're going to be closed until next year. He said they might open the road to Mammoth from Norris earlier than that, depending on the assessment of the damage to sewer and water lines in Mammoth. The North entrance is going to take a while, but he sounded like it would be a priority because of the economic impact on Gardiner.



karenandbill
Posts: 209
Joined: Thu Apr 30, 2020 10:55 am

Re: Amazing Yellowstone flooding

Post by karenandbill »

It is so sad what has happened to the park. We are just dumbfounded at the damage 2 1/2 inches of rainfall can do. Karen went to Old Faithful on Sunday and it was raining pretty steadily, but did not seem to be that bad. We left Island Park Monday for a trip to Glacier and Canada and couldn't believe it got that bad so quickly. The only good news appears to be there were no reports of injuries and everyone got out OK, even those in the back country.

What I have gathered from the local sources is that the lower portions of the park seem to be OK. However, the northern sections from Gardiner to Mammoth and Roosevelt to Silver Gate have been devastated in sections. Rebuilding the roads (or perhaps making totally new ones) is going to take not just months, but more likely years. There is an old dirt track from Gardiner to Mammoth that may offer some way for workers/deliveries to get in from Gardiner. I just don't know how much use that would be.

As for the rest of the park, it should reopen once the sewer/water is deemed safe and a plan gets in place as to how to handle all the visitors being scrunched into the lower portions of the park. They are looking into a reservation system somewhat like Glacier or Rocky Mountain have.

I would imagine that Teton will become much more crowded as well as some of the outlying areas around the park. Once we get back from our trip north, we will provide any relevant updates we can.

Bill



RikWriter
Posts: 488
Joined: Tue Jul 25, 2017 8:36 pm

Re: Amazing Yellowstone flooding

Post by RikWriter »

karenandbill wrote:
Fri Jun 17, 2022 12:33 am
It is so sad what has happened to the park. We are just dumbfounded at the damage 2 1/2 inches of rainfall can do. Karen went to Old Faithful on Sunday and it was raining pretty steadily, but did not seem to be that bad. We left Island Park Monday for a trip to Glacier and Canada and couldn't believe it got that bad so quickly. The only good news appears to be there were no reports of injuries and everyone got out OK, even those in the back country.

What I have gathered from the local sources is that the lower portions of the park seem to be OK. However, the northern sections from Gardiner to Mammoth and Roosevelt to Silver Gate have been devastated in sections. Rebuilding the roads (or perhaps making totally new ones) is going to take not just months, but more likely years. There is an old dirt track from Gardiner to Mammoth that may offer some way for workers/deliveries to get in from Gardiner. I just don't know how much use that would be.

As for the rest of the park, it should reopen once the sewer/water is deemed safe and a plan gets in place as to how to handle all the visitors being scrunched into the lower portions of the park. They are looking into a reservation system somewhat like Glacier or Rocky Mountain have.

I would imagine that Teton will become much more crowded as well as some of the outlying areas around the park. Once we get back from our trip north, we will provide any relevant updates we can.

Bill
I don't think the Gardiner to Mammoth section is going to take years simply because I think they're going to throw all their efforts into finishing it ASAP. The park supervisor did a press conference on YouTube a couple days ago and according to him, they're not going to rebuild the road that was damaged but lay down road on another route that isn't so close to the river, maybe right on top of that stagecoach road.



mdtrot
Posts: 144
Joined: Tue Jul 25, 2017 7:57 pm
Location: East Texas

Re: Amazing Yellowstone flooding

Post by mdtrot »

Yes, if 2.5 inches of rain can wash out this much of the highway, I don't see how you can ask taxpayers to pay to have the highway rebuilt on the same path. It seems top priority should be given to finding a route with less proximity to the river. And, yes, GTNP is going to be packed for a while.



karenandbill
Posts: 209
Joined: Thu Apr 30, 2020 10:55 am

Re: Amazing Yellowstone flooding

Post by karenandbill »

RikWriter wrote:
Fri Jun 17, 2022 7:44 am
I don't think the Gardiner to Mammoth section is going to take years simply because I think they're going to throw all their efforts into finishing it ASAP. The park supervisor did a press conference on YouTube a couple days ago and according to him, they're not going to rebuild the road that was damaged but lay down road on another route that isn't so close to the river, maybe right on top of that stagecoach road.
I hope you are right. I was just going by the time frame it took to redo Dunraven Pass, the road east of Fishing Bridge, and the road around Roaring Mountain--2 years for each. Perhaps they will move much faster on this, but on the other hand, it is going to take some time to design and engineer the best route. Then the time to construct will be significant.

There will be a lot of pressure to get it done, but my guess is that it will be something temporary first for residents and workers with the permanent solution taking a lot longer. But that is pure speculation at this point and my track record is not great. I was the one who was worried in April about the lack of rain/snow in the northern part of the park!



Mike W.
Posts: 62
Joined: Mon Aug 14, 2017 2:11 pm
Location: Far, far north edge of SF Bay Area

Re: Amazing Yellowstone flooding

Post by Mike W. »

I worked for a county government for many years and I used to describe the time frame for things as either glacial or avalanche. Meaning it either didn't even seem like anything was happening, but if push came to shove, you couldn't believe how fast things could happen. My guess would be at least Gardiner to Mammoth and perhaps to Norris will be repaired, at least functionally, quickly, due to political influence. The northeast area might take a while though.

One of the conflicts to Government/Public Works projects is they are expected, and generally designed for the long term. Plus gov is risk adverse, typically there is little reward and much risk for really fast tracking projects. If things go slow, people complain, but it's typically easy to explain why. If things go sideways, not even if someone gets hurt, you can lose your job and find it very difficult to find another one.



karenandbill
Posts: 209
Joined: Thu Apr 30, 2020 10:55 am

Re: Amazing Yellowstone flooding

Post by karenandbill »

Thanks for the informed comment. We can hope for the best. It will be interesting to see how it all develops.




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