The third body was found later Tuesday afternoon, Baker said. Authorities are searching for other hikers killed in flash flooding that s…
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Pulsipher said in the briefing that three of the confirmed dead are adults; the other nine were children.
That same flood struck another group 20 miles away in Zion National Park. Raging waters swept two cars downstream, leaving a 6-year-old boy still missing.
The last of seven people killed by flash flooding in a canyon at Utah’s Zion National Park was found Thursday, authorities said in a release. The canyon is as narrow as a window in some spots and several hundred feet deep.
Six of the hikers are confirmed dead.
“He’d carry a watermelon in his backpack, and he’d usually be the first one up there, and he’d serve everybody”, Sisung said of MacKenzie, who had three children.
Baker said the park received 0.63 inch of rain in one hour Monday.
The seven hikers were clambering through a popular canyon when a deluge seen only once a century unleashed a wall of churning water.
Outdoor enthusiasts are attracted to slot canyons by what Allen calls “eye candy” created by nature.
Superintendent Bradybaugh noted that “Our focus is upon the victim’s families, to support them at this hard time with compassion and respect”.
“If he wasn’t at work, he was out with his kids or grandkids, hiking all the time”, Reilly said.
The group was in Keyhole Canyon, which narrows to 6 feet across in parts and involves climbing, rappelling and swimming through several pools of water. As the search continues for the missing hikers, high water levels and continued rain showers pose further flash flooding concerns and have hampered searchers’ access to the technical portions of the canyoneering route.
Zion spokeswoman Aly Baltrus said that some members of the group were new to canyoneering, but they took a class before they entered the canyon. They went canyoneering before park officials closed slot canyons that evening due to flood warnings.
Someone who knew the group alerted park officials Monday that they hadn’t checked in after their trip.
“Ninety percent of Zion is wilderness”, Picard said. “It is not possible to contact everyone”.
“The big lure to any slot canyon is just incredibly handsome scenery”.
Cox says the boy he spoke with “was still very shaken, as you can imagine, because it was a little surreal to him and everyone”. “It’s just a completely magical place”.
“All individuals who pick up permits are given safety information, including the current forecast and flash flood potential rating at the time they pick up the permit”.
(AP Photo/Rick Bowmer). People look on as crews clear mud and debris from a road following a flash flood, Tuesday, September 15, 2015, in Colorado City, Ariz.
Baker said the group of seven was spotted in the canyon about an hour earlier by another group on their way out.
She says the group was told Monday morning that flash-flood danger was probable, a warning that rangers give nearly every day during monsoon season.
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Brian Anderton with the Salt Lake Regional Incident Management Team said Wednesday that they are focusing on the area closest to where two vehicles carrying the women and children were swept away Monday. “The canyon is so narrow, there’s no way to get out of certain sections of it. When the rain hits and the flood starts coming in, there’s no hope for anyone”.
