Death Valley National Park Flooding Has Left 400 People Stranded
Stranded individuals include tourists, residents, and employees of the park.
Tropical Storm Hilary's destructive nature has been felt deeply in the Death Valley in recent days, where historic rainfall and resulting flooding has left an estimated 400 people stranded inside the national park.
On Sunday, Death Valley National Park was forced to close—and still remains closed—after Hilary's passing, which brought to the park one year's worth of rain (2.2 inches) in just one day, the park said in a statement. Among the 400 people are residents, tourists, and employees of the park, and luckily, they are all sheltering in place while they wait for roads to be safe and open up to the public again.
It is still unclear when the park will reopen, according to officials. The National Park Service (NPS) is currently working with the California Highway Patrol and the California Department of Transportation to both clear roads and search for other stranded individuals across the park. As of Monday, August 21 at 1:30 pm, electricity and cell phone service have been restored across the park, but landlines are still down.
A drone video shared to social media on Monday showed what the flooding looked like on the east side of Death Valley.
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