The death toll is now 11, with one person still missing.
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A woman looks at a damaged vehicle swept away during a flash flood Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2015, in Hildale, Utah. Experts believe that it is “one of the worst weather-related disasters in the history of Utah”.
While the search will continue for the boy, the focus now is on community recovery. Of the 16 people in the vehicles, three people were saved and one is still missing.
Park authorities said about 60 search and rescue personnel were on scene.
Crews have worked since Monday evening monitoring flood crossings and searching the banks of Short Creek amid sporadic rain showers.
Three adults were in the group, the others will children. The 12th body was recovered nearly six miles downstream from where the vehicles were found, according to reports.
Ventura County sheriff’s Capt. John Reilly said Wednesday that 58-year-old Sgt. Steve Arthur, 58, was on the trip.
Reilly said Arthur’s wife, Linda Arthur, was with him and is missing.
“Showers and thunderstorms will be around the region for the next couple days”, Rathbun said. Those cars were filled with a total of 16 people – three sisters and their 13 children – when the vehicles were engulfed. Zion officials said the group got a permit to hike Keyhole Canyon early that morning hours before a flash flood warning prompted park officials to close the canyons. It is not known if the victims were aware of the warning. Others were beginners but had taken a basic skills course. “I’ve lived here all my life, and I’ve never seen anything like this”, he said. “They have to decide for themselves if they’re ready”.
The couple were in a group that, like thousands before them, were attracted to the majestic slot canyons of the desert Southwest by unique geological quirks, which also make them deadly.
“My family and my friend’s family were swept away in this flash flood”.
“It’s not a very tough canyon”. Rocks and other debris were deposited on local roadways.
“Ninety percent of Zion is wilderness”, park ranger Therese Picard said.
“The state and county officials have been here on the ground, and the support has been outstanding”, Hildale resident Dee Barlow said.
“This hit with a vengeance we haven’t seen for some time”, Kevin Barlow, assistant fire chief in Hildale, said, NBC News reported.
“They had stopped there because they couldn’t cross. And they were back away from it”.
By late yesterday, he said, the water had mostly receded.
Washington County Emergency Services in Utah said no contamination has been found, pending water sample testing, but that boiling water for one minute would guarantee it’s safe to drink.
Rescuers spent much of Tuesday downstream in Colorado City.
Monday’s flood on the Short Creek near the Utah-Arizona border was caused by a cluster of torrential afternoon downpours falling on dry, mountainous terrain.
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Search dogs were used alongside clean-up crews as both communities of Hildale and Colorado City were assisted in finding the missing and open up roadways. Della Black and two of her children are confirmed deceased. Josephine and Naomi Jessop were in a 15-passenger van with eight of their children, who were between ages 5 and 11.
