Death Valley drenched by record flooding, stranding about 1,000 in park

The National Park Service said in a news release Saturday that the national park roads remain closed, but “visitors who were previously unable to leave the area hotels [were] able to carefully drive out with law enforcement escorts.” It said water has receded in most areas of the park and “extensive mud and gravel deposits” remain.

As of Saturday morning, “everything is going well,” said Nikki Jones, a server assistant at a restaurant in the park’s Ranch Inn, who also lives there and posted a video of the flooding from her colleague on Twitter. Jones told The Washington Post that the floodwaters receded Friday afternoon, but light debris remain on the roads.

“CalTrans has done an amazing job to get it cleaned up as soon as possible,” she told The Post in a Twitter message. “I drove on the roads today.”

Jones said some people are stranded at the Inn at the Oasis because of trapped cars, “but people are able to get out of the park today.”

“The floodwaters pushed dumpster containers into parked cars, which caused cars to collide into one another,” the National Park Service said in a statement Friday. “Additionally, many facilities are flooded including hotel rooms and business offices.

The torrent was triggered by the Southwest monsoon, which develops each summer as prevailing winds shift from out of the west to out of the south, drawing a surge of humidity northward. This moisture can fuel vigorous downpours that douse the parched desert landscape. Because there is little soil to soak up the rains, any measurable rains can cause flooding in low-lying areas, and heavier rains can collect into normally dry creeks, triggering flash floods.

This year’s Southwest monsoon has been particularly intense — which has helped relieve drought conditions in the region but also resulted in many significant flood events. Serious flooding has recently affected areas around Las Vegas and Phoenix.

Las Vegas flooding sends water gushing through casinos

The Death Valley flood also comes amid a series of extreme rain events over the Lower 48 states. Over the week spanning the end of July and beginning of August, three 1-in-1,000 year rain events occurred — inundating St. Louis, eastern Kentucky, and southeast Illinois. Earlier this summer, Yellowstone National Park also flooded.

How two 1-in-1,000 year rain events hit the U.S. in two days

Death Valley holds the record for the highest temperature ever recorded on Earth, as well as several runners-up. Officially, Death Valley reached 134 degrees on…