Fort Myers family at Yellowstone during disaster

Reporter: Marcello Cuadra Writer: Paul Dolan
Published: Updated:
yellowstone
Fort Myers family at Yellowstone during disaster. (CREDIT: WINK News)

Tourists were trapped in Yellowstone National Park with record floods washing out roads and bridges in the area. More than 10,000 visitors have been ordered to evacuate.

Tom Burt, from Fort Myers, experienced all of it first hand while vacationing in Yellowstone with his wife and three kids.

He said they went to sleep Sunday night in their RV and early Monday morning they were woken up by the fire department evacuating their RV park.

Burt said, “We had to evacuate as fast as possible, and head to a parking lot of a rodeo. And as we were in the parking lot at the rodeo, we could actually watch our RV site. This is the bottom though the back of it actually washed away.”

Roads, homes, and even parts of mountains are gone.

Burt said, “We started hearing reports that the roads and the bridges were washed out. And as we’re sitting there and regrouping, a house, which was maybe 100 yards upstream from our RV park, and maybe 50 yards upstream from where my kids were playing in the playground, washed away.”

A family trip turned into a nightmare. In fact, in the last 36 hours Burt told us he had to move five times.

He said, “We didn’t know if we’re going to be there for 24 hours or 24 days.” And now they’re on the road again.

“We were able to get out of Gardiner and we’re actually heading to another location and continuing on with our trip. But we’re exhausted,” Burt added. β€œAnd still to get out of Gardner, which should take two hours, is going to take eight to nine hours.”

Tom said his wife and three kids will be making their way to Fort Myers again on July 5th.

Copyright Β©2024 Fort Myers Broadcasting. All rights reserved.

This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without prior written consent.