Flash floods in Death Valley National Park closed all roads into the park, buried cars and stranded about 1,000 people on Friday.
A deluge brought “almost an entire year’s worth of rain in one morning” to California’s famously hot, dry desert park. At least 1.7 inches (4.3 cm) of rain fell in the Furnace Creek area; the average annual rainfall for the park is 4.8 cm (1.9 in).
About 60 vehicles were buried in the debris and about 500 visitors and 500 park workers were stranded, park officials said. There were no immediate reports of injuries, and the California Department of Transportation estimated it would take four to six hours to open a road that would allow visitors to exit the park.
It was the second major flood in the park this week. Some roads were closed Monday after being swamped by mud and debris from flash floods that also hit western Nevada and northern Arizona.
The rain started around 2 a.m., said John Sirlin, a photographer with an Arizona-based adventure company who witnessed the flooding while perched on a hillside rock trying to take photos of the lightning while the storm was approaching.
Video and photos posted by Sirlin on social media showed flowing water, uprooted palm trees and cars caught in the debris.
Major flash flooding in Death Valley National Park this morning. Approximately two dozen vehicles stuck in mud and rock debris at the Vall de la Mort Inn. It took almost 6 hours to come out. #cawx #stormhour pic.twitter.com/3rDFUgY7ws
— John Sirlin (@SirlinJohn) August 5, 2022
“It was more extreme than anything I’ve seen there,” said Sirlin, who lives in Chandler, Ariz., and has been visiting the park since 2016. He is the lead guide for Incredible Weather Adventures and said he started to chase storms in Minnesota. and the high plains of the nineties.
“I’ve never seen it to the point where trees and whole boulders were being washed away. The sound of some of the rocks coming down the mountain was unbelievable,” he said in a phone interview Friday afternoon.
“A lot of washes were flowing several feet deep. There’s probably 3- or 4-foot rocks covering the road,” he said.
Sirlin said it took him about 6 hours to drive about 35 miles (56 kilometers) outside the park from near the Inn in Death Valley.
“There were at least two dozen cars that were wrecked and trapped,” he said, adding that he didn’t see anyone injured “or any high water rescues.”
During Friday’s storms, “floodwaters pushed dumpster containers into parked cars, causing cars to crash into each other. In addition, many facilities are flooded, including hotel rooms and offices of business,” the park’s statement said.
A water system that provides water to residents and park offices also failed after a line that was being repaired broke, the release said.
A flash flood warning remained in effect into the evening, the National Weather Service said.
The Associated Press contributed information