Death Valley National Park continues role of rain catcher
Death Valley National Park can’t catch a break. But it is catching a whole lot of rainwater.
Yet another monsoon storm damaged roads Tuesday evening, temporarily closing the park to all traffic, according to a National Park Service news release.
While the official National Weather Service reading was only a trace at Furnace Creek, the official measuring gauge, a radar estimate indicated an estimated 2 to 3 inches fell mostly on the west side of the sprawling park.
“It was isolated but impactful,” Las Vegas-based weather service meteorologist Trevor Boucher said.
Most paved roads into and within the park are closed. There is no current estimate of when they will reopen.
The west entrance to the park is closed, leaving the only route to the park from the east side, via Death Valley Junction and California Route 190 west of the park’s boundary.
“The flooding on September 13 was very spotty,” spokeswoman Abby Wines wrote in the release. “The park’s east entrance on CA-190 was closed for a couple hours in the early evening while floodwaters crossed the highway in multiple places. This meant every road into and out of the park was closed. Traffic control contractors who were already on site were redirected to temporarily allow visitors to exit through Beatty Cutoff, which is not repaired yet from previous flood damage.”
The park has seen multiple downpours since late July, including a record 1.7 inches on the morning of Aug. 5, the heaviest rainfall ever recorded at Death Valley. An estimated 1,000 people were stranded in the park from that rainfall, including many overnight.
Caltrans road crews have cleared, rebuilt and repeated the same process on the same sections of roads.
“Death Valley National Park has been hammered by storm after storm for the past seven weeks,” said Mike Reynolds, superintendent of the park. “This is totally unprecedented. Caltrans, NPS, and Inyo County road crews have been clearing and re-clearing roads. Thank you for your patience while we work together to get the roads around Death Valley NP safe for park visitors to drive on.”Caltrans has yet to release an estimated timeline for reopening roads to the park entrance.
Ryan Dermody, Caltrans District 9 Director said, “It is vital for the public to understand how serious the situation is on all roads within the closure. Caltrans crews are in the process of assessing the entirety of SR 190 and SR 136, recognizing that there is likely more damage. Please respect that the closures are there to keep everyone safe.”
“The NPS road crew is concentrating on Badwater Road currently,” Wines stated. “Sections of the road have debris up to 3 feet thick. Shoulders have eroded away leaving unsafe drop-offs. The park anticipates opening the road from CA-190 to Badwater Basin by September 24.”
Contact Marvin Clemons at mclemons@reviewjournal.com. Follow @Marv_in_Vegas on Twitter.
