After Yellowstone, floodwaters menace Montana’s largest city

By MATTHEW BROWN and LINDSAY WHITEHURST
Associated Press

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Floodwaters that rushed through Yellowstone National Park and surrounding communities earlier this week are moving through Montana’s largest city, flooding farms and ranches and forcing the shutdown of its water treatment plant. The water in the Yellowstone River hit its highest level in nearly a century as it traveled east to Billings, Montana, home to nearly 110,000 people. It hit 16 feet on Wednesday, a foot higher than the water plant needs to work effectively. The historic floodwaters raged through the nation’s oldest national park earlier this week and may have forever altered the human footprint on Yellowstone’s terrain and the communities that have grown around it.