Gasoline and diesel remained unavailable in the sprawling Big Bend National Park in West Texas on Tuesday, with park officials urging visitors to fill up before entering the park “until further notice.”
The park first announced the outage in a social media post Monday, advising visitors to fill up their vehicles in nearby towns like Marathon and Terlingua before entering the park.
Aramark, a food and facilities company that operates two gas stations inside the park, said Tuesday the outage was due to “storm-related damage.”
“Repair teams are actively working to assess the situation and identify a solution to restore service as soon as possible,” company spokesperson Sheena Weinstein told Marfa Public Radio.
Big Bend officials referred questions to the company.
The national park is home to two small gas pumps, one near the Panther Junction visitor’s center and another miles away at the park’s Rio Grande Village campground.
It wasn’t immediately clear when exactly the outage started or what the nature of the storm damage was. The park saw extensive flooding on July 4 that submerged the riverside campground and prompted the evacuation of campers there. Some roads in the park remain closed because of recent flooding.
The start of a major construction project to tear down and rebuild the park’s Chisos Mountain Lodge has meanwhile been delayed once again to this fall, according to the park’s website. The project was initially set to begin in May, but has since been pushed back multiple times.
The park announced last week it is now accepting construction bids for the project, which is expected to take at least two years to complete. The popular Chisos Basin area is set to be almost entirely closed to visitors during that time.
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