Heavy rains sent floodwaters across parts of Death Valley on Friday, damaging dozens of vehicles -- these at the Furnace Creek Inn -- and trapping visitors and employees inside the park/NPS

Editor's note: This corrects rainfall amount for Friday. The 1.71 inches reported by the park was unofficial. The official amount was 1.46 inches.

Heavy rainstorms Friday that dumped nearly a year's worth of precipitation on Death Valley National Park sent floodwaters across the park, damaging dozens of cars, closing roads with rubble, and trapping roughly 1,000 visitors and staff inside the park. No injuries were reported.

All roads into and out of the park were closed by afternoon, and California Department of Transportation officials guessed it would take four-six hours to open a road on Highway 190 toward the east of the park for use as an exit.

According to park spokesperson Abigal Wines, an estimated 60 vehicles belonging to visitors and staff were buried in several feet of debris at the Inn at Death Valley. "The flood waters pushed dumpster containers into parked cars, which caused cars to collide into one another," she added in a news release. "Additionally, many facilities are flooded, including hotel rooms and business offices."

Monsoonal rains this year have been heavier and lasting longer into the summer months than typical. Heavy rains earlier this week washed away cars in some instances, and closed roads into and within the park. On the west side of Death Valley, floodwaters swept away a vehicle as it traveled Highway 190 a few miles west of Stovepipe Wells. 

The return of the torrential rains on Friday caused the Cow Creek Water system, which provides water to the Cow Creek area for park residents and offices, to fail. Park staff identified a major break in the line due to the flooding and was working to repair it.

Dozens of cars were trapped by flood debris at the Inn at Furnace Creek/NPS

The park received at least 1.46 inches of rain at Furnace Creek, nearly an entire year’s worth of rain in one morning; the park’s annual average is 1.9 inches of rainwater. While the park initially reported 1.71 inches of rainfall, that was an unofficial measurement. The rainfall for Friday did set a record August amount of precipitation; the previous mark was 1.35 inches received in August 1936.

The park was not expecting further monsoonal rain activity Friday, but more rain is expected in the coming days, and the ground is very saturated.

The park is working closely with its partners at the California Department of Transportation, and state and county emergency services on assessing the situation and damage.  

For more current updates on alerts and conditions in the park, please visit nps.gov/deva or follow Death Valley National Park on Facebook or Instagram. 

Monsoonal rains last weekend also forced closure of Mojave National Preserve, as flooding ripped up roads across the preserve.