“All roads in and out of the park are currently closed and will remain closed until park staff can assess the extent of the situation,” the National Park Service said Friday.
There were approximately 500 visitors and 500 workers at the park on Friday, the agency said, and stranded visitors can leave if they wish. No injuries have been reported.
Abby Wines, public affairs officer for the National Park Service, told CNN on Friday that several visitors to Death Valley National Park have voluntarily left the park.
Despite the road closures, Wines says “no one is stopping” visitors if they find a way out of the park.
At The Inn at Death Valley, approximately 60 cars belonging to visitors and staff are buried under the debris, according to a news release.
The park got 1.46 inches of rain, the second-wettest day since record-keeping began in 1911, short of the record 1.47 inches for drops, according to CNN meteorologist Pedram Javaheri.
It is almost 70% of the average rainfall for Death Valley and more than 1,300% of the average rainfall for August.
In 61 years of the 111-year record, annual rainfall in the valley fell short of Friday’s amount, Javaheri said.
About an inch of rain fell in an hour, which happens on average every 1,000 years, according to Javaheri.
Before Friday, Death Valley had recorded just 0.04 inches of rain in 2022, the driest start to July since 1953, when no rain fell.
Wines says it’s unclear when the roads will reopen. The park remained closed Saturday as many roads were “critically damaged” by the storm, according to the California Department of Transportation.
“Drivers should not attempt to avoid any closures to access the park,” Caltrans said in one update.
Interstate 190, which runs through the park from west to east, will remain closed through the weekend while crews work to clear it, according to the update.
