She says the group of four men and three women set out Monday before park officials closed slot canyons that evening due to flood warnings. She didn’t have further details on their identities.
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Rescuers are waiting for flood danger to pass before recovering the bodies.
The search for the missing hikers has been hampered by concern about flooding and other hazards, it said.
Rangers located the unoccupied cars belonging to the hikers on Tuesday morning and confirmed the three fatalities.
“In the flash flooding two occupied vehicles were hit by a large wall of water and debris at the Canyon Street Maxwell Crossing and were carried into the flood”, Washington County officials said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Utah Gov. Gary R. Herbert said the state is offering “its full resources to the town of Hildale to aid with the search and rescue effort”. The community is known as the home base for a polygamous sect. Baltrus said the victims’ vehicles were found at the trailhead.
Hildale, Utah, Mayor Philip Barlow said during a news conference Tuesday water blocked the only way in and out of the canyon and there was no way the 16 people in the vehicles could have gotten out. Three people were rescued. Three children survived.
Baker did not know if the bodies found were male or female.
But as of Tuesday evening, storms threatened yet another round of flooding.
Seven individuals were canyoneering in Keyhole Canyon when.63 inches of rain fell between 4:30 and 5:30 p.m., said Aly Baltrus, spokeswoman at the park. He says people on both sides of the divide were working together toward a common objective. Clear Creek, Pine Creek and Virgin River all lie downstream from the canyon, where the preliminary search was conducted. “Reeling right now”, Utah Lieutenant Governor Spencer Cox said on Twitter. KSL-TV meteorologist Kevin Eubank said the combined deaths in the two floods made for the deadliest weather-related 24 hours in Utah’s history.
Reuters reported that hundreds of volunteers in the small city of Hildale were searching for the missing person on the border.
One survivor of the flooding in the Utah-Arizona border community remained hospitalized overnight.
The same flash floods claimed at least four lives in nearby Zion National Park.
Park rangers advised the group that the weather was poor and flooding was likely when they picked up their permit on Monday, Baker said.
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By late Monday, Wyler said, the water had mostly receded.
