Flash Flooding Leaves 1,000 People Stranded over Weekend at Death Valley National Park

Intense rainfall caused flash flooding at Death Valley National Park, leaving around 1,000 people stranded over the weekend due to damaged roadways.

Approximately 1.46 inches of rainfall was recorded at Furnace Creek throughout Friday morning, almost matching the previous record of 1.47 inches set in 1988, according to the National Park Service (NPS).

The rainfall was the most that had ever been recorded for the month of August, which is generally the driest month of the year, the Associated Press (AP) reported.

“The heavy rain that caused the devastating flooding at Death Valley was an extremely rare, 1000-year event,” said meteorologist Daniel Berc via the NPS.

Berc added that “[a] 1000-year event doesn’t mean it happens once per 1000 years, rather that there is a 0.1% chance of occurring in any given year.”

The heavy rainfall caused asphalt damage to hundreds of miles of roadway throughout the park as well as outside, including California Highway 190. Portions of the highway are expected to reopen on Tuesday, according to state transportation officials.

Approximately 500 visitors and 500 staff were unable to exit the park on Friday, the NPS stated. There were also 60 vehicles buried underneath the mud and debris due to the flash flooding.

As of Sunday, those stranded were carefully able to start exiting the park on the damaged roadways, according to park officials.

No injuries to tourists, park residents, or staff have been reported thus far.

Park officials expect to take anywhere from days to months to fix the damaged roads.

The historic rainfall at Death Valley National Park, which is one of the hottest and driest places in North America, caught residents off guard.

“People around me were saying they had never seen anything this bad before — and they have worked here for a while,” Nikki Jones, a restaurant worker within the park, told CBS News. “I couldn’t believe it. I hadn’t seen water rising that fast in my life.”

The recent flash flooding comes after abnormal rainfall events that have occurred across the county, including in eastern Kentucky, where up to at least 37 people have died due to flooding.

You can follow Ethan Letkeman on Twitter at @EthanLetkeman.