<\/p>\n
At least two people are dead and more than a dozen missing after flash flooding overwhelmed a remote area of the Grand Canyon on Saturday, according to National Park Service officials.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe National Park Service is asking the public to provide information for more than 20 individuals who may be missing or unaccounted for following a significant flash flood in Bright Angel Canyon and the Phantom Ranch area on August 29,\u201d reads a Facebook post from the Grand Canyon National Park.<\/p>\n
At least one 46-year-old man was killed during the flooding, and his body was found around Crystal Rapids. Authorities warned more severe weather could hit the area Monday. As of Sunday night, around 15 people were still missing or unaccounted for.<\/p>\n
The devastating flooding over the weekend hammered Bright Angel Canyon and Phantom Ranch, both of which are located deep within the Grand Canyon, on Saturday. Bright Angel Canyon, a major side canyon, runs roughly 10 miles from the North Rim down to the Colorado River, and Phantom Ranch sits at the bottom of the inner canyon, slightly north of the Colorado River.<\/p>\n
Both areas were closed Saturday after the torrential rainfall, with more than 62 people evacuated Sunday morning.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe flash flood resulted in significant impacts to infrastructure throughout Bright Angel Canyon,\u201d the NPS explained. \u201cNearly all footbridges spanning Bright Angel Creek were destroyed, eliminating hiker access across the creek.\u201d<\/p>\n
Park officials also said the Colorado River would be closed to river traffic \u201cuntil further notice\u201d because of metal structures and debris entering the waterway. Those already in the canyon, the NPS said, \u201care receiving direction through river operations rangers and the Grand Canyon River Alert system.\u201d<\/p>\n
David Gregory, one of the hikers who was evacuated,\u00a0told Arizona\u2019s Family\u00a0he would not have survived without the help of his rescuers. The water was moving so quickly, Gregory said, that, without help, it would have been \u201cgame over\u201d for him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI definitely think we could have gotten caught up in that side creek, and if we would have fallen in or the water carried us in, I think it would have been game over,\u201d he told the local news outlet. \u201cBecause that creek was moving so quickly, there was so many rocks and tree branches and then, once you get into the Colorado River, it was like a whirlpool in there with all the debris circling around.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Sunday, the NPS\u00a0announced\u00a0stage 4 water restrictions beginning Monday, revealing the severe weather caused \u201cextensive damage to inner canyon infrastructure, including the Transcanyon Waterline, which supplies water from the canyon to the park.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the \u201cforeseeable future,\u201d only dry camping is permitted, fires are restricted, and visitors and residents have been asked to shower for five minutes maximum and to \u201cflush toilets selectively.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pray for those still missing, for the rangers and volunteers working to rescue them, and for their loved ones.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
At least two people are dead and more than a dozen missing after flash flooding overwhelmed a remote area of the Grand Canyon on Saturday, according to National Park Service officials. \u201cThe National Park Service is asking the public to provide information for more than 20 individuals who may be missing or unaccounted for following<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31873,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[10626,533,9988,7001,3109,207,1382,5262],"class_list":["post-31872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jesus","tag-canyon","tag-dozen","tag-flash","tag-flood","tag-grand","tag-killed","tag-missing","tag-storms"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31872\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/31873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}