One person died and around 15 people are missing or unaccounted for after a major flash flood at the Grand Canyon forced evacuations, swept large boulders into the Colorado River and knocked out the sole water pipeline that serves tourists and residents, the National Park Service said on Sunday.
The body of a 46-year-old man was recovered late on Sunday evening near Crystal Rapids along the Colorado River, the park service said without providing additional details. Coroner’s officials were at the scene.
Weekend flooding in Arizona’s Bright Angel Creek, which flows into the river, happened on Saturday afternoon.
More than 60 people were evacuated from the depths of the canyon. The park service said it had yet to account for 15 people and asked anyone with details about hikers or campers in the canyon to get in touch.
The Arizona Department of Public Safety was helping with additional evacuations on Sunday.
Because the main water line was out of service, starting on Monday tourists won't be able to stay overnight at lodges and hotels within Grand Canyon National Park. Year-round residents are being asked to conserve water.
“These measures are crucial for ensuring the safety and sustainability of water resources,” the park said in a statement.
Torrents of water wiped out footbridges over the creek and altered the landscape, widening the creek bed and extending an existing river rapid or creating a new one.
The flood was a major blow to an enduring effort to modernise the pipeline that serves 6 million visitors a year and roughly 1,600 residents of Grand Canyon Village.
“Heaven help us if the whole thing down there at the bottom has to be reconstructed,” said Jack Schmidt, director of the Centre for Colorado River Studies at Utah State University.
“Where are they going to get the money? It's a nightmare for the park service. And thank God nobody was hurt or killed.”
Halting overnight stays at the park because of a lack of water is rare, although the pipeline frequently has failed over the years.
A $208 million (€179 million) rehabilitation of the pipeline and upgrades to the associated water delivery system started in 2023, with the park service calling it a crucial investment to ensure the park can meet the needs of residents and visitors. The project was expected to be completed next year.
Popular tourist spots, including the Bright Angel Campground, the North Kaibab Trail and Phantom Ranch, home to a historic canteen and dormitories, remained closed on Sunday.
Between 1-2.5 cm of rain fell within about 20 minutes on a rocky slope where there’s a steep drop in elevation, said National Weather Service meteorologist Darren McCollum in Flagstaff. The deluge was preceded by two smaller systems that drenched the area hours earlier.
“So when the main storm moved in, torrential rain fell on everything that was already soaked, and that caused all the problems that we're seeing," McCollum said.
The weather service said the flooding happened on the north side of the Grand Canyon, where Bright Angel Creek comes from the North Rim down to the Colorado River, dropping around 1,828 meters.
More rain and thunderstorms were possible for the area into Monday.
