Sad News: Due to severe flooding that has caused extensive damage to the park, Yellowstone Park is closed for the first time in 34 years.

Heavy rain and warmer temperatures melting mountain snow drive record floods just as tourist season was getting underway.

All five entrances to Yellowstone National Park in the United States have been closed after record floods triggered by heavy rain and glacier melt destroyed roads and bridges and inundated nearby communities.

The entire park, spanning parts of the western states of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho, will be closed to visitors including those with lodging and camping reservations, at least until Wednesday as officials inspect the damage, the park superintendent said on Monday.

It is the first time all five park entrances have been closed to visitors since a series of devastating wildfires in 1988.

The National Park Service (NPS) said it was working to evacuate visitors and staff remaining at various locations, especially in the hardest-hit northern part of the iconic park.

“It is likely that the northern loop will be closed for a substantial amount of time,” the park superintendent, Cam Sholly, said in a statement.

Aerial footage released by NPS showed large parts of the winding North Entrance Road between Gardiner and park headquarters in Mammoth Hot Springs, Wyoming, washed away by surging floodwaters along the Gardner River.

The flooding cut off road access to Gardiner, a town of about 900 people and home to many Yellowstone staff, just outside the park’s North Entrance