http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&edition=us&ie=ascii&q=death+valleyTwo dead, Death Valley National Park closed by flooding
DEATH VALLEY NATIONAL PARK – Fierce storms in the Mojave Desert triggered floods that killed at least two people in Death Valley National Park and forced the closure of one of the hottest places on Earth.
The park remained closed to visitors Monday night, although power was restored late in the afternoon to the visitors center, park offices and the Furnace Creek Ranch, where about 240 concession employees are housed in dorms. The employees remained in their dorms Monday night, although visitors to the ranch had been evacuated.
"They are happy they have air conditioning again," park spokeswoman Roxanne Dey said.
It's not unusual for Death Valley to record high temperatures between 100 and 120 degrees this time of year, with overnight lows in the 80s.
The flooding, which washed cars off roads and sent mud, rock and debris cascading into the Furnace Creek Wash, was triggered by an intense thunderstorm that hit the desert Sunday night.
The two people who were killed were in a car stuck in mud, rock and debris about five miles from the Furnace Creek Ranch complex. Authorities recovered the vehicle late Monday, but Dey said she didn't know if the people were male or female or where they were from.
She couldn't immediately say if more people were trapped by the flooding. California Highway Patrol and National Park Service helicopters spotted at least six other vehicles off highways and dirt roads.
"The folks we did find are OK," Dey said. "But there still might be other cars under the mud."
Park Superintendent J.T. Reynolds said the park would remain closed for at least two days and perhaps through the weekend as severed water and wastewater lines were repaired. At one point only two phone lines remained open.
California Highway 190 – a main road between the eastern Sierra and Nevada – was closed to through traffic for 130 miles, from Highway 395 in the Owens Valley to Death Valley Junction near the Nevada state line. The CHP said Highway 178 was also closed to Shoshone, Calif.
Visitors from the 200-room Furnace Creek Ranch hotel, and the 20 people who had been camping in a nearby campground were escorted by CHP caravan out of the park on Monday.
Reynolds said rangers weren't sure if backcountry campers or hikers might have also been caught in the flooding.
The park, with 3.4 million acres, is the largest national park outside Alaska. Reynolds said water remained Monday in the Badwater basin – the lowest point in the Western Hemisphere, at 282 feet below sea level.
Thema: Floods Kill 2, Close Death Valley Park (Gelesen 11254 mal)