Body of 46-year-old man recovered after flash flooding in Grand Canyon, park service says

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — One person died and about 15 people are missing or unaccounted for after a major flash flood at the Grand Canyon forced evacuations, swept large boulders into the Colorado River and knocked out the sole water pipeline that serves tourists and residents, the National Park Service said Sunday.

The body of a 46-year-old man was recovered Sunday evening near Crystal Rapids along the Colorado River, the park service said without providing additional details. Coroner’s officials were at the scene.

Weekend flooding in Arizona’s Bright Angel Creek, which flows into the river, happened Saturday afternoon. More than 60 people were evacuated from the depths of the canyon. The park service said it had yet to account for 15 people and asked anyone with details about hikers or campers in the canyon to get in touch. The Arizona Department of Public Safety was helping with additional evacuations Sunday.

Because the main water line was out of service, starting Monday tourists won’t be able to stay overnight at lodges and hotels within Grand Canyon National Park. Year-round residents are being asked to conserve water.

“These measures are crucial for ensuring the safety and sustainability of water resources,” the park said in a statement.

Parth Desai was hiking through a narrow passage in Bright Angel Canyon with fellow physicians and a park ranger when the downpour started Saturday.

“We saw the creek flood, waterfalls coming up out of nowhere, boulders, mud, landslides happening everywhere,” he said.

Later, as they made their way toward Phantom Ranch, a colleague shouted “Up, Up, Up, Up!” as a 4-foot (1-meter) debris wall headed toward them and they ran up into a patch of cacti, he said. They were rescued by helicopter late Saturday after making it to the Phantom Ranch area, he said.

Torrents of water wiped out footbridges over the creek and altered the landscape, widening the creek bed and extending an existing river rapid or creating a new one. The flood was a major blow to an enduring effort to modernize the pipeline that serves 6 million visitors a year and roughly 1,600 residents of Grand Canyon Village.

“Heaven help us if the whole thing down there at the bottom has to be reconstructed,” said Jack Schmidt, director of the Center for Colorado River Studies at Utah State University. “Where are they going to get the money? It’s a nightmare for the park service. And thank God nobody was hurt or killed.”

Halting overnight stays at the park because of a lack of water is rare, although the pipeline frequently has failed over the years.

A $208 million rehabilitation of the pipeline and upgrades to the associated water delivery system started in 2023, with the park service calling it a crucial investment to ensure the park can meet the needs of residents and visitors. The project was expected to be completed next year.

Lodging is still available just outside the park’s South Rim entrance station in Tusayan.

Popular tourist spots, including the Bright Angel Campground, the North Kaibab Trail and Phantom Ranch, home to a historic canteen and dormitories, remained closed Sunday.

Erica Viola said she and about 50 other hikers at that campground watched the creek rise Saturday and debris start to flow by, including what looked like a bunkhouse. The helicopter ride out cut her adventure short by two days, she said.

About half an inch to 1 inch (1 to 2.5 cm) of rain fell within about 20 minutes on a rocky slope where there’s a steep drop in elevation, said National Weather Service meteorologist Darren McCollum in Flagstaff. The deluge was preceded by two smaller systems that drenched the area hours earlier.

“So when the main storm moved in, torrential rain fell on everything that was already soaked, and that caused all the problems that we’re seeing,” McCollum said.

The weather service said the flooding happened on the north side of the Grand Canyon, where Bright Angel Creek comes from the North Rim down to the Colorado River, dropping around 6,000 feet (1,828 meters).

More rain and thunderstorms were possible for the area into Monday.

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Stengle reported from Dallas. Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina, Holly Ramer in Concord, New Hampshire, and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles also contributed.

Jamie Stengle And Felicia Fonseca, The Associated Press