Emergency crews scrambled on Tuesday to reopen roads and restore utility service in isolated United States communities of Montana and Wyoming cut off by historic floods that forced the first summertime closure of Yellowstone National Park in more than three decades.
Montana Governor Greg Gianforte declared a statewide disaster, with rescue and relief efforts focused in three counties following days of record rainfall that triggered unprecedented flooding, mudslides and rockfalls in the greater Yellowstone region.
The upheaval followed one of the region's wettest springs in many years and coincided with a sudden spike in summer temperatures that has hastened runoff of melting snow in the park's higher elevations from late-winter storms.
Record flooding and rockslides prompted park officials on Tuesday to close all five entrances to Yellowstone to inbound traffic for the first time since catastrophic wildfires roared through the area in 1988.
The disaster comes amid growing concern about climate change-fuelled extreme weather around the world.
Last month, carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere hit levels not seen in at least four million years, with scientists warning that the effects of climate change will only worsen around the world without swift action to curb emissions.
University of California climate scientist Daniel Swain weighed in on the spate of recent extreme weather in the United States.
"Amazing to consider that in past 12 hours the U.S. West has seen devastating (record) flooding in Montana near Yellowstone, extreme wildfire activity in Arizona that visually resembles an erupting volcano amid (record) drought, & post-wildfire debris flows in northern California," he wrote on Twitter.
Visitors stranded, but no deaths or injuries reported
Authorities were also working evacuate stranded visitors from the park, which is expected to remain closed at least through mid-week.
No deaths or injuries have been reported, but startling video footage aired on NBC News showed an entire riverfront house being swept off its foundation and into the raging torrent of the Yellowstone River north of the park.
At the request of local law enforcement agencies, the Montana National Guard sent helicopters to assist in search and rescue efforts in the small towns of Roscoe and Cooke City.
Mr Gianforte said in a statement that rapid snowmelt and recent heavy rains have brought “severe flooding that is destroying homes, washing away roads and bridges, and leaving Montanans without power and water services.”
“I have asked state agencies to bring their resources to bear in support of these communities,” he said.
