His wife, Linda Arthur, was the last person missing, the sheriff’s department said. His family told authorities he typically drives the back roads.
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This week’s deaths marked the greatest loss of life in Zion’s history, surpassing a 1963 tragedy in which five people were killed by flash flooding in the Virgin River Narrows, Purcell said. “Witnesses say they were backing out of it, trying to get away from it and it still swept them in”, the assistant fire chief told the AP. Their community is known as the home base for a polygamous sect.
The names of the children, ranging from 4 to 11 years old, weren’t disclosed.
Members of the group were all in their 40’s and 50’s and were visiting the Zion National Park from Nevada and California. “However, the people who go make the choice, they sign the paper that says that it is their safety and their responsibility”.
“The ranger who handed that permit to that man said, ‘I would not go today, ‘” Purcell said.
Lieutenant Governor of Utah Spencer Cox arrived in Hildale Tuesday to inform officials that the National Guard has been activated to help with recovery effort.
Combined with the 12 dead and one missing from a separate incident in the nearby town of Hildale, Monday’s flooding could account for 20 people dead.
Further north, three people were killed by flash flooding in Zion National Park and four remain missing.
The federal team has previously combed through the rubble of the World Trade Center after the September 11 terrorist attacks and the devastation that followed Hurricane Katrina. The first body was found near the mouth of the canyon Tuesday afternoon, and a private canyoneering group came across the second an hour later. Only three children survived. As searchers prepared to retire for the night, one was still missing.
The National Weather Service issued the flash flood warning after the seven were on their way to the canyon, she said.
Park spokeswoman Aly Baltrus said Wednesday that crews found the body downstream of Keyhole Canyon.
Within hours of entering Keyhole Canyon, dark skies unleashed fierce rains that sent water surging through the chasm, sweeping the group to their deaths Monday.
“Ninety percent of Zion is wilderness”, Picard said. Rangers noted Keyhole Canyon and several other canyons began to flash flood.
Even a small amount of rain can turn a trip deadly as the moisture runs off the desert landscape and fills the canyon with water, branches, rocks and debris.
Search and rescue team members carry a body after it was found…
Floodwaters swept away multiple vehicles in the Utah-Arizona border… By that time, park officials say there was no way to reach them in time to alert them to the violent floodwaters coming their way.
Seven hikers killed in a flash flood at Zion National Park this week stopped to pose for a photo in their helmets, wetsuits and harnesses before heading into a narrow canyon.
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AP Photo/Rick Bowmer Women search along a stream after a flash flood on September 15, 2015, in Colorado City, Arizona.
