YELLOWSTONE, Mont. — People in Montana are cleaning up after historic flooding devastated parts of Yellowstone National Park this week. The raging waters caused mudslides, lifted homes off of their foundations, tore down bridges, and forced nearly 10,000 people to evacuate the park.
Gina Stravinsky was one of the evacuees with her mother.
"Just a lot of rain in Yellowstone. I was kind of crazy because you could go to different parts of Yellowstone, and it was sunny, and you couldn't believe that all of this was happening around you," said Stravinsky, who lives in Mira Mesa.
Stravinksy was stranded with her National Geographic Tour Group of 21 people at Yellowstone National Park following Monday's epic flooding.
"It's such a historical event, it was only 2 inches of rainfall, but it created such an effect on the snow melting, from on the mountains and things, and that's just what made the river go crazy," Stravinsky said.
So crazy that the Yellowstone River topped nearly 14 feet with the rushing waters even washing away a house.
This is flooding not seen in Montana in over a century. Stravinsky's tour group had to evacuate fast before rangers closed the entire park. But her bus was met with a rock slide. Her tour guide got on the road to try to move the massive boulders out the way, but they had to wait for another bus.
"The bus couldn't get to us either because of all the flooding and all the roads were closed and bridges were washed out," Stravinsky said.
They finally reached a crowded hotel an hour away. Stravinsky thought she was safe and sound until the whole town lost power.
"The hotel generator only lasted two hours, so we spent the day in the dark, and all the hotel staff had to evacuate with us," Stravinsky said.
Having been detoured to the Grand Teton National Park, Stravinsky and her Mom from Mira Mesa say this is a trip they will never forget.
"We we're going to spend time at Old Faithful and see Grand Prismatic and some of the real historical things that we didn't get to see. We'll have to come back," Stravinsky said.