Second death confirmed after flash flood in Grand Canyon

A second death was confirmed by National Park Service officials on Monday after a flash flood sent a surge of water and debris through an area of the Grand Canyon over the weekend.

Dozens of visitors had to be evacuated by helicopter during the deluge, which consumed trails and infrastructure. Nearly 80 people were rescued and one person is still unaccounted for, as more heavy rain and thunderstorms in the forecasts threaten additional debris flows, flash floods or rock falls, the NPS said in a statement.

“With deep monsoonal moisture in place and already saturated soils in some locations, an elevated risk of flash flooding will be in place through Monday,” the National Weather Service (NWS) said.

Incident commander Dave Black said officials used night-vision and other equipment to find people who needed to be evacuated over the weekend.

Park officials called on the public to provide any information on those who may have been hiking or backpacking in the inner canyon near Bright Angel Creek, or campers with a reservation in the area.

Flash floods are not uncommon in the region, especially during the monsoon season from June to September when strong rains pummel the arid landscapes and can quickly fill narrow rock formations. Visiting the Grand Canyon – a crown jewel of the US national park system – can be particularly dangerous in the summer because of the risk of flash flooding that accompanies the monsoon, when clear days can give way quickly to thunderstorms and downpours.

The deluge that unleashed torrents of rain on hardened and sparsely vegetated steep terrain came as the Grand Canyon region – and the Colorado River basin that runs through it – continue to be mired in a severe drought that has fueled a widespread water crisis.

Scientists have long warned that the climate crisis will create stronger extremes and destructive shifts between wet and dry conditions. The sudden and strong rainstorm that fueled this catastrophic flood may have been been supercharged by the historic El Niño that has sharply increased sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean, which has the ability to affect weather systems around the world.

The NWS has issued flood watches across a large part of the south-west, including in northern Arizona. Officials cautioned against visiting creeks, slot canyons, burn scars and low water crossings in the area, where flash floods can quickly develop.

Videos taken by hikers before they were airlifted to safety showed churning brown waters carrying large metal objects and other debris. Some crossed the bridges just shortly before they were consumed by the waterway.

“It must have been, like, 10 minutes afterwards – we crossed the bridges to get to the evacuation zone,” hiker Gabriel Burgeman told a local news station. “We were just barely in time to cross them before they got wiped out.”

The body of a 46-year-old man was recovered on Sunday evening near Crystal Rapids along the Colorado River, the NPS said, without providing additional details. At least one other body has been recovered, according to a statement posted on Facebook by the Grand Canyon national park without details.

Early assessments also showed roughly 40% of a key pipeline that provides drinking water for tourists and residents had been damaged or destroyed. The 12.5-mile (20km) long Transcanyon Waterline has endured dozens of breaks in recent years. A more than $200m repair and replacement project was well under way when the floods hit.

The pipeline moves water from one side of the canyon, down to its base, across a bridge and back up the other side of the rough landscape. Any effort to fix a break from rock falls or flash floods is time-consuming, precarious and costly, so addressing the latest damage will be complicated.

Emergency water restrictions began on Monday, closing down all overnight stay lodges and hotels within Grand Canyon national park, and spigots at campgrounds on the South Rim were turned off. Year-round residents were asked to conserve water. The park had water conservation measures in place even before the latest bout of flooding and damage.

The flooding on Saturday in Bright Angel Creek, which flows into the river, led to more than 60 people being airlifted from the canyon’s depths.

Parth Desai was hiking through a narrow passage in Bright Angel Canyon with fellow physicians and a park ranger when heavy rain started falling on Saturday.

“We saw the creek flood, waterfalls coming up out of nowhere, boulders, mud, landslides happening everywhere,” he said.

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 blow to an enduring effort to modernize 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 Center for Colorado River Studies at Utah State University. “Where are they going to get the money?”

Halting overnight stays at the park because of a lack of water is rare, although the pipeline frequently has failed over the years. While the Grand Canyon has large storage tanks for potable water on the South Rim, they will not be refilled while the pipeline is out of service.

A $208m 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.

In unrelated flooding, officials in San Antonio, Texas, on Sunday reported a pair of deaths related to a severe storm there two days earlier.

Police said a 46-year-old woman died after being caught in rushing water in San Pedro Creek north of downtown, Texas Public Radio reported. A person with that woman made it out the situation safely, police said.

Separately, police said a man in his 50s was found at Woodlawn Park on Sunday morning.

The woman’s death is being investigated as a drowning while the man’s death is considered a possible drowning, police said.