Flash flooding at Havasu Canyon strands hundreds of tourists; Arizona National Guard deployed for rescue
PHOENIX - A flash flooding at Havasu Creek on Aug. 22 destroyed bridges and walkways, and left about 200 hikers stranded on the reservation.
"It's a beautiful place and it's great to visit, but it's pretty dangerous this time of year," said Latricia Mimbs, who is among those stranded.
Many tourists lost all of their belongings, as they rushed to higher ground during a severe thunderstorm.
"We had to cross a lot of water crossings," said Mimbs. "A lot of the bridges washed out, but we made it back. The tribe let us stay inside one of their buildings, last one with about 200 people."
Rochelle Tilousi, who lives near Havasu Creek, said Thursday started out as a beautiful day with clear skies, but clouds rolled in by 11:00 a.m., and an hour later, heavy rain came down for at least 30 minutes.
"It was very scary," said Tilousi. "That's the second biggest flood I've ever experienced in my life."
Officials with the National Weather Service said the area received between one and two inches of rain within the timeframe of an hour to an hour and a half.
"In that area, there are narrow canyons where the water can accumulate, and in these cases, you see heavy rain falling and accumulating in these narrow canyons, and then rushing down stream in a flash flood," said Brian Klimowski, a Meteorologist with NWS in Flagstaff.
"As soon as that flood came through, a huge piece of cottonwood tree came through and knocked the whole culvert through," said Tilousi. "Kids were stranded, visitors were stranded on this side where our house is."
On Saturday, officials with the Arizona National Guard said they used a Blackhawk helicopter from Aug. 23 to the afternoon of Aug. 24 to evacuate 104 tourists and tribal members. In addition, resupply drop-offs of water and food were made.
"The AZNG evacuation effort concluded at approximately 1:30pm, Saturday August 24th," read a portion of the statement.
Meanwhile, the Havasupai Tribe has declared a state of emergency, and has closed their tribal lands off until further notice.
Hikers recount ordeal
Tribal council closes Havasupai lands amid flooding
The Havasupai Tribe is declaring a state of emergency and closing its land until further notice as a result of flash flooding that left hundreds of hikers stranded, and prompted Gov. Katie Hobbs to activate the National Guard. We spoke with hikers who recount what happened that led to their stranding.
On Saturday, we spoke with some of the hikers who were in the area. They say rain began to fall at around 11:00 a.m. Thursday. They waited 15 minutes, thinking it would let up, but it only came down harder.
Within 30 minutes, people began warning others to evacuate, because flash flooding had begun. As the water started flooding the area, many were forced to leave all their belongings behind and get to higher ground. However, that was not an easy feat, as the water kept rising.
"There was a picnic table nearby, so I hurried and jumped on that, and all of them were trying to save stuff from the tent," Lauren Fischbeck said. "The picnic table I was on started moving because the water level had gone up to where the seats were, and then kept on rising. So then, it started pushing it towards where the trees were. So I was nervous. I got off and just started holding on to a tree."
"We saw the rush of water come from the village, and there was a point where our two friends were ahead of us and they were waiting for people to climb off the trail. Water was rushing too much, and that was the point where I'm like, 'I'm not going forward anymore because if I get swept, I'm going right up over the falls,'" said Eric Raucci.