Death Valley National Park is still closed due to major flash flood damage. The park had its rainiest day ever on August 20, 2023, receiving more rain than it normally does in an entire year.

Roughly 400 people were marooned inside Death Valley National Park on Monday due to road damage inflicted by storm Hilary, though crews were working to open some routes out of the park.

Last month a "Volcano Watch" article discussed the bicentennial of the first visit of Westerners to Kīlauea caldera, led by English missionary William Ellis, in 1823. Ellis did not just visit the summit region; he had approached from Kaʻū, traveling along what eventually became known as Kīlauea’s Southwest Rift Zone. Ellis first witnessed evidence of Kīlauea’s restlessness there, in the form of a vast, 4.8-square-mile (12.5 square-kilometer) lava flow that had erupted just a short time before.

Flash flood watches stretched from Utah to California on Friday and parts of Joshua Tree National Park in the Golden State were closed as a precaution against any flooding caused by Tropical Storm Hilary.