Flooding in the Grand Canyon left at least one person dead and more than a dozen people missing.
Officials recovered the body of a 46-year-old man near Crystal Rapids along the Colorado River, the National Park Service said, according to The Associated Press.
About 15 people were unaccounted for, with the NPS asking anyone with details about people who may have been hiking or backpacking at the time to provide information.
One person, John Giusti, a father of three and chiropractor from Texas who was hiking the Grand Canyon for the first time. He was accompanied by two friends. Giusti was listed as missing. It is not known if his friends are as well, The New York Times reported.
Relatives last contacted Giusti around 2 p.m. Aug. 29, before the flooding started.
About 60 people were evacuated from some of the canyon’s lowest points with help from the Arizona Department of Public Safety, the AP reported.
No injuries have been reported, according to the Times.
Parth Desai was hiking with a group of doctors and a park ranger when rain started coming down heavily Saturday.
“We saw the creek flood, waterfalls coming up out of nowhere, boulders, mud, landslides happening everywhere,” Desai said, according to the AP.
A fellow hiker shouted “Up, Up, Up” as a 4-foot wall of debris flowed toward them. They scrambled into a patch of cactus and were eventually rescued by helicopter.
David Gregory, who was at a lodge at the bottom of the canyon, said that when he looked at the Colorado River, it “looked chocolate brown” because of the debris, while the streams feeding into the river were black, the Times reported.
The flooding also destroyed the canyon’s only water pipeline, forcing emergency water restrictions for residents in the area. Tourists are also prohibited from staying at lodges and hotels inside the park.
Day visits and dry camping were allowed as of Monday morning, according to the NPS. For the complete and most up-to-date list of what is open and closed, click here.
More thunderstorms and heavy rainfall “could result in additional flash flooding, debris flows, rockfall and changing trail and river conditions,” officials said, The New York Times reported.
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