Natural History Wanderings

Death Valley National Park reports

On the afternoon of 11/20 a fire started in the electrical substation that distributes power to most of Death Valley. Panamint Springs was not impacted. Because of the location and complexity of the substation, the rebuild may take days or weeks.
Southern California Edison has dispatched a large generator with the intent to run all of Stovepipe Wells and Furnace Creek. There will still likely be times without power as repairs are made or the generator undergoes maintenance.
Those visiting should anticipate prolonged periods without power or connectivity. The Furnace Creek cell tower is powered by separate generator, but will likely be down at times as well. The park will have limited ability to respond to emails, posts, or phone calls for the duration of the outages. The parks internal radio system used by emergency responders and law enforcement is operational.