It wasn’t a good weekend to hike to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Several hundred people had to be evacuated Sunday after a dam burst because of torrential rains.
No injuries have been reported, but authorities still will be looking Monday for about 20 unaccounted-for people who might be in harm’s way. A number of evacuees were taken to a Red Cross shelter in the Route 66 town of Peach Springs, Ariz.
The problems started when water breached Redland Dam and poured into Cataract Canyon and Supai Canyon, which was heavily flooded, said Blair said. […]
Earlier, a private boating party of 16 people was stranded, but uninjured, on a ledge at the confluence of Havasu Creek and the Colorado River on Saturday night after flood waters carried their five rafts away, authorities said.
The Arizona Republic reports:
Youngman said an unknown number of bridges and three homes along the Supai Creek were swept away by 3 a.m., but no injuries were reported from this incident. Evacuation orders were made official by 5:30 a.m. Sunday.
As rescue helicopters from several agencies plucked people to safety, water levels continued to rise. By 9 a.m. Sunday, they had risen eight feet above normal levels, which is “considerable,” Youngman said.
A line of tourists in cars were coming out of the 62-mile paved route 18 that runs from the Hualapai Hilltop to Route 66. There, people coming out of the canyon were giving their names and license plate numbers, the last in a series of checkpoints to make sure everyone is accounted for.
Among those coming out were Paul Krogue, 29, and Jess Bernard, 26, both from Montana, who spent the entire night and most of the morning stranded on an inaccessible side of the Supai Creek above Mooney Falls.
“Everyone did a phenomenal job,” Krogue said. “People came together and helped each other out. There were times there when we thought people were gonna die. We were definitely nervous for ourselves.”
He said the entire area was destroyed.
“You couldn’t recognize it,” he said.
The pair said they witnessed dead animals floating by and a group of nine campers stranded in trees nearby. At first light, the pair was able to help hang netting between the trees and their side of the creek so the campers stuck in trees could use a caribiner to get out of the trees and onto safe land.
The Associated Press reported:
A flash flood warning was in effect for the area until Sunday evening. The area got 3 to 6 inches of ran Friday and Saturday and got about 2 more on Sunday, said Daryl Onton, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Flagstaff.
“That’s all it took — just a few days of very heavy thunderstorms,” he said.
That is a lot of rain, but duck-drowners are common in August, which is typcially monsoon season in New Mexico and Arizona.
UPDATE: The Arizona Republic said there were still some people unaccounted for Monday morning.
KPHO-TV has aerial images of the flooded river and broken dam. The station also has a story and video.
UPDATE2: The Arizona Republic reports that there were still 11 people unaccounted for as of Monday evening.
UPDATE3: The Associated Press reported Tuesday that all of the missing people have been found.
So it appears there was no loss of life from the flooding. Considering the suddenness in which it occurred, that’s fairly amazing.
oh no – my daughter was going to be there Sunday
I’m sure she said she was taking a helicopter to the bottom and hiking from there
will call her in the morning to see if this affected her