Part Of Yellowstone National Park May Reopen Soon; Here's When

MORAN, WY — Parts of Yellowstone National Park may reopen as soon as next week after historic flooding this week damaged homes, roads and bridges and forced thousands to evacuate.

Cam Sholly, superintendent of the park, said in a statement Friday morning that "tremendous progress" has been made in a "very short amount of time." Even so, he said they have a long way to go.

“All emergency and life safety objectives within the park have been accomplished or stabilized within the first 96 hours of the flood event, without major injury or death," Sholly said. "We have an aggressive plan for recovery in the north and resumption of operations in the south."

The National Parks Service said a limited reopening of Yellowstone's south loop was "highly possible next week," with certain visitor entrance changes. West, South and East entrances were targeted for reopening as early as next week.

"Yellowstone continues major flood recovery efforts in the north while repairing damage and preparing for reopening in the south," the parks service said in a news release.

For now, all five park entrances remain closed as water levels remain high, but have fallen substantially in the last 24 hours.

The park service is working to determine what other sections could reopen this season. Any such decisions will depend on the severity of damage and the agency's ability to safely reopen additional sections.

The park said it does not have a timetable for when Yellowstone can fully reopen, nor any estimates for repairs and recovery.

As Montana Patch previously reported, record flooding caused a rockslide to nearly crush a car, and dozens had to be rescued as homes, roads and bridges were washed away. Some communities were left isolated.

Photos and videos (some with graphic language) showed a bridge near Tom Miner Basin being washed away by raging waters in the Yellowstone River.

The Montana National Guard rescued 87 people and an entire section of the North Entrance Road between Gardiner and Mammoth Hot Springs collapsed into the river.

"Many sections of road in these areas are completely gone and will require substantial time and effort to reconstruct or relocate and build," the park service said, referring to the North Entrance, Tower Junction to Northeast Entrance, Tower-Roosevelt to Canyon Junction and Canyon Junction to Fishing Bridge.

"In some cases, roads may not be able to be reconstructed in place and will need to be relocated," the park service added.

Park officials said more than 10,000 visitors fled the park due to flooding.