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Northwest Wyoming hit with flooding this week

Northwest Wyoming hit with severe weather this week
Posted at 5:59 PM, Aug 25, 2022
and last updated 2022-08-25 20:24:29-04

The scenes of flooding may look all too familiar to Montanans after recent flooding, but this time it impacted Cody, Wyoming, and east of Yellowstone National Park's east entrance.

The roads were left damaged and impassable in the wake of storms.

“We had very heavy rain in the area, a lot of wind,” said Cody Beers with Wyoming Department of Transportation on Thursday.

Mudslides here Wednesday night brought traffic to a halt as rocks and mud turned the busy U.S. 14-16-20 leading into the park into a roadblock.

“And a mudslide came down across a road that is currently under construction,” Beers said.

Traffic was backed up for miles and trapped motorists and drivers for around five hours.

“We had people that were stuck between the mudslide and Yellowstone,” said Beers.

The mudslide is gone now, but residents in Cody are only cautiously optimistic as they've seen more than their fair share of wild weather in recent days.

On Tuesday, Cody was hit with a thunderstorm that flooded streets and some downtown businesses.

“I never, that I can remember, seen anything this crazy. Not with this much water,” said Wyatt Becker, a Cody resident of 10 years.

Becker was downtown when it happened and was amazed by what he was seeing.

Becker said it started flooding around 11 p.m. Tuesday and was gone by midnight. The flooding caused little damage, although some buildings and vehicles were dented by hail.