SWFL couple in Yellowstone during historic flooding, power outages

Historic flooding in and around Yellowstone National Park has locals and tourists trapped.

Video of rushing water through Red Lodge, Montana, has gone viral on the internet, with homes falling into the river. The streets in the city look more like rivers now.

Residents have also lost power because of the extensive damage, all prompting Montana’s governor to declare a statewide disaster.

WINK News spoke to a Southwest Florida woman, Lori Klein, who is on vacation there and now stuck.

“We noticed the river seemed high, but we didn’t think anything of it,” Klein said.

You may remember Klein, who has become kind of a regular on WINK News.

She’s the selfless stranger who saw Sandy Bilsky’s desperate plea for a kidney on our air and stepped up.

She donated her kidney to him in March, and now he’s in good health.

On Monday, Lori and her husband Chris took off to Yellowstone for their annual vacation, and things started off great.

“We actually went three years ago and loved it so much we came back,” Klein said.

But this time, things got bad quickly. Klein sent photos of water everywhere, creeping up sides of buildings, rising at the bases of trees, and floodwater every mile you go.

She said, “It’s the most beautiful place I have ever seen. Unfortunately, that landscape is going to be changed forever.”

And that change happened fast.

Klein said she and her husband were at breakfast when they found out they couldn’t get back into their hotel, “We took an 8-hour road trip all the way back around to get back to the east side”

“It’s heartbreaking,” She added. “We really don’t care about our vacation at this point. We were wondering if we should just stop what we are doing to try to help.”

Klein and her husband have put their Yellowstone experience behind them, and they’re off to Glacier National Park in Montana.