Floods Hit Yosemite Valley

Roads closed both in, out of the valley; many take inconvenience in stride

by Mark Grossi & Diana Marcum
Fresno Bee - May 17, 2005

Roads were closed and 300 campsites evacuated Monday when a high river, deep snowpack and warm weekend followed by showers combined to bring flooding to Yosemite Valley.

A park ranger blocks the flooded road into Yosemite Valley near Bridalveil Fall. Officials don't know how many campers were evacuated. "We don't know how many decided to get up and leave on their own because they were cold and wet," said park spokeswoman Adrienne Freeman. Eric Paul Zamora / The Fresno Bee

The roads in and out of the valley might open today if the water subsides enough.

But all day Monday the waters kept rising. People already in the valley couldn't get out, and those outside couldn't get in as the Merced River sheeted roads with water.

The highest waters always come at night as melted snow runs from the high country to the valley.

The National Weather Service expected the river to peak at 13 feet about midnight Monday — several feet over flood stage.

Officials did not have a reliable count Monday of how many campers were evacuated from the valley, the most popular destination in Yosemite National Park.

"We don't know how many decided to get up and leave on their own because they were cold and wet," said park spokeswoman Adrienne Freeman.

No damage was reported from the rising water, but Freeman said Yosemite Chapel might get a few inches of water inside.

Still, meadows filled with water, and the river washed across Southside Drive near the chapel by midmorning. "Our ducks are happy," said Freeman.

Tourists in the valley rolled their pants to their knees and took snapshots of each other standing in the floodwaters. Yosemite ranger and spokesman Tom Medema saw a vole, a small rodent that lives underground, flushed out of its home.

Blinded, it ran into street curbs.

Medema left the vole to the laws of natural selection, probably to be eaten by a bird, but he did not apply the same principle to the humans who dangled their feet off a bridge just inches above high, rising water. He ordered them back to protect their safety.

"Every year the river takes a life," he said. "People just don't understand the forces at work here."

Most of those stranded in the valley seemed to look on it as an adventure.

"Where better to be trapped than in Yosemite in the throes of nature?" Medema asked. "But there is some anxiety. People still have visions of the '97 flood when we brought people out in boats and airplanes."

Even at 13 feet, the river this week is far below the flood level of 1997.

U.S. Geological Survey records show the river then ran 23.4 feet deep.

Those kept away from the valley by the floods Monday were not as accepting of the situation.

Jackie and Phillip Herrell drove some 3,000 miles from Tennessee to the northern Yosemite entrance and were turned back.

"The river was jumping and roaring. You could see it was in a flood state," said Phillip Herrell.

They then drove 130 miles to the southern entrance and were turned back because parking lots were full.

"Tennessee is starting to look better and better," said Jackie Herrell.

The floods were not a surprise, said spokesman Scott Gediman. Yosemite's snowpack, like the rest of the Sierra Nevada east of Fresno, is far above average.

The warm rain fell on a snowpack that's 180% of average, briefly speeding up the melt and filling creeks, rivers and waterfalls.

Officials know that if the weather warms quickly, a torrent of snowmelt fills creeks and streams, which empty into the area's main rivers.

Spring floods are common in the park, officials said, and not all are destructive.

Yosemite Valley, which glaciers altered radically in the distant past, was a lake at one point many centuries ago.

While periodic flooding can cause damage and chaos for people, the high-water events help the ecosystem.

But the warm rainfall early Monday threw a curve at park officials.

"We weren't expecting the warm precipitation," Gediman said.

Park officials started getting campers up and out before 7:30 a.m. Monday.

By 9 a.m., slow traffic made it difficult to leave the valley.

The park closed the valley to in-bound and out-bound traffic by 10 a.m.

Many people had to stay another night.

The park concession, DNC Parks & Resorts, which operates retail stores, motels and other amenities, said it was no problem to accommodate people stranded in the valley.

About 15,000 people took advantage of the warm weather to visit Yosemite this past weekend, the highest number of visitors this year.

But Sunday night is when many people check out, so there were rooms to spare, spokeswoman Kerri Holden said.

"We still had 43 rooms available at the Ahwahnee," she said.

Holden said the concession still was honoring reservations at the Wawona Hotel.

Wawona remains open to park visitors.

Lisa Sesto, right, advises tourists at the Yosemite Sierra Visitors Bureau in Oakhurst. Areas around Highway 120 west -- including Big Oak Flat, Merced and Tuolumne Groves of Giant Sequoias -- remain open. Eric Paul Zamora / The Fresno Bee

Areas around Highway 120 west, including Big Oak Flat, as well as the Merced and Tuolumne Groves of Giant Sequoias, remain open.

The high-country roads — Tioga and Glacier Point — remain buried under snow and closed.

Some tourists sought refuge at hotels in nearby towns.

The Comfort Inn in Oakhurst as of midafternoon Monday had sold about 15 rooms to people fleeing the park.

Many of the tourists had to leave trailers and other items in Yosemite, said Nancy Laisle, a front-desk employee. "It's really a mess down there."

The Tenaya Lodge at Yosemite, located about two miles from the park's south entrance, worked with its sister properties in Yosemite to accommodate guests leaving the park.

As of about 1 p.m., a handful of tourists had relocated to the lodge, which was about 95% full, said Kaylene Riggs, the lodge's revenue manager.

The forecast calls for warm and dry weather. But Medema urged anyone planning to visit Yosemite to check weather advisories and road warnings, as conditions can change quickly.

"People have to understand that wild things happen in wild places," he said.