These are the seven hikers as they posed for a photo in Utah’s Zion National Park just hours before they were killed by flash floods on Monday. Since then, floodwaters have killed six others in the park, most recently a man drowned in 2014, she said.
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After three grim days of searching, crews recovered the bodies of all seven canyoneers in the group.
The bodies of the seven were found throughout the week, the last coming Thursday.
Authorities say the body of a 33-year-old man missing since flash flooding hit the Utah-Arizona border earlier this week has been recovered miles from his heavily damaged vehicle.
A 6-year-old boy still remains missing, AP reported.
The torrent was so fast, “it was taking concrete pillars and just throwing them down, just moving them like plastic”, said Lorin Holm, who called the storm the heaviest in the 58 years he’s lived in the community.
The children of the Arthur family, Allison, Justin and Bobby, said they want the public to know that the group was not inexperienced. The couple from Camarillo, California, were outdoor enthusiasts.
Steve Arthur was a 21-year veteran of the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office and was assigned to the Camarillo Police Department as the traffic supervisor. Arthur was awarded the Medal of Valor in 1998 for rescuing a man from a burning vehicle .
“If he wasn’t at work, he was out with his kids or grandkids, hiking all the time”, Reilly said. “He loved the outdoors”.
Once the danger of flooding starts, there is no way logistically to check every canyon and get people out, she said.
Black lost his wife and four daughters.
“The two, you could see, were beat up pretty badly”.
Search and rescue volunteers walk in Short Creek while looking for a missing person in Colorado City, Ariz., Wednesday, September 16, 2015.
“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. “It’s also far from Zion National Park, where seven hikers died in yet another flash flood”.
“We appreciate all of the support from our cooperators and staff for all of their care and assistance”, Bradybaugh said.
“That little bit of rain can turn what was a very comfortable daylong excursion into a horror story, literally in a split second”, said Colorado-based canyoneering expert Steve Allen.
Muku Reynolds, 59, of Chino, California, had recently become a grandmother and was a passionate hiker.
As canyoneering has grown in popularity since the 1990s, it’s also attracted more people who are new to it. Many slot canyons are deceptively easy to enter, luring in people who find themselves trapped in a disaster, Allen said.
He said Reynolds, who grew up in Japan, was known for collecting heart-shaped rocks along trails.
“She leaves a hole in our hearts and our lives that will never be filled”, a statement said.
The group from California and Nevada in their 40s and 50s began their hike before officials closed the canyons that evening because of flood warnings, park spokeswoman Holly Baker said.
It’s unclear whether the mothers had cellphones to receive the flood warnings that were issued several hours before the event took place.
Park policy prevents rangers from assessing visitors’ skill level or stopping them from entering canyons.
The park is investigating what led to the deaths and reviewing its policies, but the process for canyon entry permits is decided at the national level and any changes would likely need to come from the top down, Zion spokesman David Eaker said.
– The same unique geological quirks that lure people to the majestic slot canyons of the desert Southwest also make them deadly.
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The children of Steve and Linda Arthur said their parents were extremely cautious and had been watching weather reports closely.
