I Got Stuck in the Yellowstone Floods
The torrent of rainfall that devoured roads and swept away bridges on Monday was supposedly a “1,000-year event.” But what does that even mean these days?
Unprecedented flooding in the Yellowstone area on Monday, June 13, inundated homes, devoured roads, swept away bridges, isolated entire towns, and shut down one of America’s busiest and most famous national parks. It was yet another indication of the impacts that climate change is likely to have on flood- and drought-ridden communities across the West.
In Livingston, Montana, a town of about 8,000 an hour north of Yellowstone National Park, dozens of people stood along a levee Monday morning, watching chocolate-milk-colored water chug through. I was one of them. A torrent of mud, foam, and logs surged by us.
A cool, wet spring had left the area
