YELLOWSTONE’S SOUTH LOOP TO REOPEN AFTER FLOODS
Parts of Yellowstone will reopen to visitors Wednesday morning, after dramatic floods forced the national park to shut down last week.
Entrances to the south loop of the park will reopen to a limited number of visitors starting at 8 a.m. local time, the National Park Service said Saturday in a news release.
“Less than six days ago, Yellowstone National Park was hit with devastating floods,” Park superintendent Cam Sholly said in the release. “Thanks to the tremendous efforts of our teams and partners, we are prepared to reopen the south loop of Yellowstone.”
The south loop includes the Old Faithful geyser and Yellowstone Lake and is accessed via the south, east and west entrances of the park. Some parts of the south loop, including four campgrounds in Wyoming near the border with Idaho and Montana, will remain closed.
Local residents, business owners and tourists are likely to be relieved that parts of the park will reopen. Yellowstone receives the most visitors between June and September, and this summer season was expected to be a particularly busy one, as the national park prepared to celebrate its 150th anniversary.
In an earlier news conference, the park superintendent suggested it was the first time since Yellowstone opened 150 years ago that it had to shut down due to flooding.
Scientists say climate change is making extreme weather events more common globally. The flooding around Yellowstone was just one of several climate disasters recorded across the United States this month.