National coverage of dramatic flooding in Montana focuses on Yellowstone NP; residents are an afterthought

I first became aware of the flooding in Montana thanks to this journalist out of Red Lodge, Montana yesterday morning.  Here's what came across my Twitter feed.  It shows Rock Creek flooding. 

I'm a Montana-phile, having vacationed in the state several times and having written about its delivery of health and human services here.  So I started following the flood news on Twitter, and I soon saw it was impacting areas south and west of Red Lodge, in Livingston, Paradise Valley, and Gardiner, at the northern entrance to Yellowstone National park.  In particular, the Yellowstone River, of which Rock Creek is a a tributary, was experiencing a flood of historic proportions.  

I watched the three national newspapers I subscribe to for a dispatch about the flooding, and they finally started coming late yesterday (maybe 4 pm Pacific time), but the focus of all of them was on Yellowstone National Park, with barely a mention of the impacted communities where people live and work.  

Fishing shop, Livingston, Montana
(c) Lisa R. Pruitt, August 2017

Here's the New York Times story, headlined, "Entrances to Yellowstone Park Are Closed After Heavy Rain and Floods,  which finally gets around to the towns of Gardiner and Livingstone, Montana, north of the national park, at the end of the story.  Here are the fourth and fifth paragraphs from the end of that story:  

The unruly weather system has caused flooding that has spilled into the southwestern reaches of Montana, affecting residents in Park County, along the edge of the park.

Patients and staff at a hospital in Livingston, Mont., were evacuated on Monday as a precaution amid surging floodwaters, and emergency cases were diverted, the facility said. Residents in some parts of the county, including Livingston, were evacuated from homes, the authorities said.

Yellowstone River in Gardiner, Montana
(c) Lisa R. Pruitt 2017

Here's the Washington Post story, "Yellowstone shuts down after record rainfall ravages roads."   It includes these two paragraphs about the region outside the national park: 

Gardiner School
(c) Lisa R. Pruitt 2017

The rainfall has affected residents in the region, such as the isolated community of Gardiner. Sholly [Superintendent of Yellowstone NP] said the park is working with state and county officials to support residents.

“We’ve got so many Montana communities right now that are being flooded and without electricity and our heart goes out to them,” said Katrina Wiese, president and CEO of Destination Yellowstone.

Gardiner Community Center
August 2017
(c) Lisa R. Pruitt 2017

Here's the Los Angeles Times story, which is headlined, "Yellowstone Park assesses damage after floods ‘never seen in our lifetimes.’"  The story is actually reported by the Associated Press out of Helena, and it gets to life and the consequences of the flood outside the national park in the second paragraph:  

Gardiner, Montana
(c) Lisa R. Pruitt 2017

While numerous homes and other structures were destroyed, there were no immediate reports of injuries. Yellowstone officials said they were assessing damage from the storms, which washed away bridges, caused mudslides and left small cities isolated, forcing evacuations by boat and helicopter.

It’s unclear how many visitors are stranded or have been forced to leave the park, or how many people who live outside the park have been rescued and evacuated.

Some of the worst damage happened in the northern part of the park and Yellowstone’s gateway communities in southern Montana. National Park Service photos of northern Yellowstone showed a mudslide, washed-out bridges and roads undercut by churning floodwaters of the Gardner and Lamar rivers.

Train station Livingston, Montana
(c) Lisa R. Pruitt 2017

The flooding cut off road access to Gardiner, Mont., a town of about 900 people near the confluence of the Yellowstone and Gardner rivers, just outside Yellowstone’s busy North Entrance. Cooke City was also isolated by floodwaters, and evacuations were issued for residents in Livingston.

With my son at the Dreamcatcher TiPi Lodge, north of Gardiner
across Highway 89 from the Yellowstone River
August 2017

The neglect of folks in these gateway communities reminds me of this.  

Postscript:  NPR's coverage this afternoon also closed with the disaster's impact on the Yellowstone gateway communities of Gardiner and, farther north, Livingston: 

Grocery Store in Gardiner, Montana
(c) Lisa R. Pruitt 2017

Rebecca Demery and her husband own Gardiner's only grocery store which has been largely cleared out. Delivery trucks should be able to get back into town today but access to Gardiner will generally be limited for a long time. Coming out of the pandemic, businesses in gateway towns had been hoping for a big summer.

"I think at this point we're just trying to take it hour by hour," Rebecca said, "because there's nothing really that any of us can do to change it. But it's going to be a very different year than expected I think." 

Irrigation along the Yellowstone River, north of Gardiner
(c) Lisa R. Pruitt 2017 

About 50 miles downstream, in Livingston, Mont. the 25-bed hospital was evacuated Monday night and its main campus remains closed Tuesday afternoon. Residents near the Yellowstone River were issued mandatory evacuation orders, while shelters opened in the nearby town of Bozeman. The orders were lifted Tuesday morning.

About a hundred miles to the east, the small town of Red Lodge has seen substantial flooding and evacuations, Yellowstone Public Radio reports.  

The Yellowstone Public Radio report in that link leads with the impact on Red Lodge and Livingston, turning only near the end of the story to Yellowstone National Park.