Flood waters from Yellowstone surge across eastern Montana

Matthew Brown et Lindsay Whitehurst, The Associated Press

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BILLINGS, Mont. — Montana’s largest city on Thursday restarted its water treatment plant, which it had shut down in response to unprecedented flooding that caused heavy damage in Yellowstone Park and nearby communities.

Meanwhile, residents of the ravaged areas were cleaning up the mess and contemplating the economic impact of this disaster, which could make portions of the park inaccessible during the tourist season.

The City of Billings urged residents to conserve water after a flood in the Yellowstone River forced it to shut down its water treatment plant.

“No one envisioned a once-in-500-year flood on the Yellowstone when we designed these facilities,” said Debi Meling, the city’s director of public works.

The city of 110,000 stopped watering its parks, and the fire department filled its trucks with water from the river.

On Wednesday, the water in the Yellowstone River surpassed the record level set in Billings in 1997 by 30 centimeters. The water treatment plant was restarted on Thursday.

Flooding that hit earlier this week drove out some 10,000 visitors to the oldest national park in the United States.

The torrents of water that washed away homes and reshaped the course of a river ― perhaps forever ― do not appear to have claimed any casualties. Damaged roads may need to be rebuilt elsewhere.

While such flooding is rare, it is also the type of event that global warming is making increasingly common, experts say.

“We certainly know that climate change is causing more natural disasters, more fires, bigger fires, and more floods, and bigger floods,” said Robert Manning, a retired professor at the University. from Vermont. These things are going to happen, and they’re probably going to happen with a lot more intensity.”

Yellowstone officials hope to be able to reopen the southern portion of the park, where the Old Faithful geyser is located, next week. They warn that the northern portion risks being closed all summer, a blow to neighboring communities that depend on tourism.

The closure of the northern portion will deprive visitors of such popular sites as Tower Fall, Mammoth Hot Springs and the Lamar Valley, where bears and wolves can sometimes be observed.

June is typically one of the busiest months in Yellowstone.

Officials are now studying how to rebuild miles of roads and potentially hundreds of bridges, many of which are for hikers exploring the park’s most remote corners. A first damage assessment is not expected until next week.

Professor Kelly Goonan, a national parks expert at Southern Utah University, predicted the impact of reconstruction will likely be felt for several years.

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