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Death Valley turns muddy after flash floods : NPR


Cars are trapped in mud and debris from flash floods at The Inn at Death Valley in Death Valley National Park in California on Friday.

National Park Service via AP


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Cars are trapped in mud and debris from flash floods at The Inn at Death Valley in Death Valley National Park in California on Friday.

National Park Service via AP

LOS ANGELES – Hundreds of hotel guests stranded by flash floods at Death Valley National Park were able to drive out after crews cleared a path through rock and mud, but the roads were blocked Damaged by floodwaters or suffocated by debris is expected to be closed next week, officials said Saturday.

The National Park Service said Navy and California Highway Patrol helicopters conducted aerial searches in remote areas for stranded vehicles, but found no vehicles. which convenience. However, it can take days to assess the damage – the park near the California-Nevada state line has more than 1,000 miles (1,609 km) of roads across 3.4 million acres (1.3 million hectares).

No injuries were reported from Friday’s record rain. The park weathered 1.46 inches (3.71 cm) of rain in the Furnace Creek area. That’s about 75% of what the region normally gets in a year and more than what was recorded in the whole of August.

Highway 190 was closed due to flash flooding in Death Valley National Park on Friday.

National Park Service via AP


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National Park Service via AP


Highway 190 was closed due to flash flooding in Death Valley National Park on Friday.

National Park Service via AP

Park officials say that since 1936, the only day with more rain has been April 15, 1988, when rainfall fell to 1.47 inches (3.73 centimeters).

Nikki Jones, a restaurant worker who lives in the hotel with other employees, said it was pouring rain when she went to breakfast on Friday morning. By the time she returned, the standing water had quickly reached the door of the room.

“I couldn’t believe it,” Jones said. “I’ve never seen water rise so quickly in my life.”

Afraid of water entering her ground-floor room, Jones and her friends put their luggage on the bed and used towels under the doorways to stop the water from getting in. For about two hours, they wondered if they would be flooded.

“People around me say they’ve never seen anything this bad before – and they’ve been working here for a while,” Jones said.

While their room was spared, five or six other rooms at the hotel were flooded. Carpets from those rooms were then ripped off.

John Adair, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Las Vegas, said most of the rain – just over an inch – was a downpour between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m. Friday.

The floods have “cut off roads in and out of Death Valley, just washed the roads and created a lot of debris,” Adair said.

Officials said Highway 190 – the main route through the park – is expected to reopen between Furnace Creek and Pahrump, Nevada on Tuesday.

Park employees who were also stranded due to closed roads are continuing to shelter in place, except for emergencies, officials said.

John Sirlin, a photographer with an Arizona-based exploration company, said: “All the trees and rocks were washed away, who witnessed the flood as he sat on a rock. rocks on the hillside, where he was trying to photograph lightning as the storm approached.

He said in a phone interview on Friday afternoon: “The noise from some of the rocks coming down the mountain was unbelievable.

In most areas, the water has receded, leaving behind a dense layer of mud and gravel. About 60 vehicles were partially buried in mud and debris. There have been numerous reports of road damage, and residential water lines in the Cow Creek area of ​​the park have been damaged at multiple locations. About 20 palm trees fell on the street near an inn, and several staff quarters were also damaged.

“Given the severity and widespread nature of this rainfall, it will take time to rebuild and reopen everything,” park director Mike Reynolds said in a statement.

The storm was followed by massive flooding earlier this week at the park 120 miles (193 km) northwest of Las Vegas. Several roads were closed Monday after they were inundated with mud and debris from flash floods that also hit western Nevada and northern Arizona.

Friday’s rain started around 2 a.m., said Sirlin, who lives in Chandler, Arizona, and has been visiting the park since 2016.

“It’s harsher than anything I’ve seen there,” said Sirlin, the lead guide for Incredible Weather Adventures, who started chasing storms in Minnesota and the high plains in the 1990s.

“A lot of water washes away several feet deep,” he said.



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