2 more bodies found in Zion; 18 now dead in Southern Utah floods

SPRINGDALE, Utah — At least 18 were confirmed dead Wednesday, as crews continued to comb parts of Southern Utah hit by flash floods two days before.

Two people were still missing after Monday's flooding.

Included in that number was a 6-year-old boy who was in one of a pair of vehicles swept away Monday in Hildale, Utah. The mayor of that town, Philip Barlow, identified him Wednesday as Tyson Lucas Black. He was among 16 children and women in the two vehicles; all were related.

Officials said the bodies of 12 others who were in those vehicles were found downstream after a wall of water and debris washed through the Utah-Arizona border in Hildale and twin town Colorado City, Ariz., about 160 miles northeast of Las Vegas.

None of the dead were publicly identified.

Search crews on Wednesday found two more bodies, bringing the total to six dead from a group of hikers that had gone into a narrow canyon in Zion National Park on Monday. About 60 staffers from the National Park Service and local emergency responders were part of the effort.

Four bodies from the hiking group — three men and one woman — were found Tuesday in the national park about 20 miles north of Hildale. The park service described them as being in their 40s and 50s and from California and Nevada.

Officials believe at least one more from the group of seven is unaccounted for. They picked up a permit for narrow Keyhole Canyon about 7:40 a.m. Monday, the park service said. None came out of the canyon, and their vehicles haven't moved.

Canyon flooding danger

Park rangers advised the canyoneers that flooding was "probable," that day, a news release from the park service said.

Keyhole Canyon is for skilled climbers, the park service said. At points, repelling requires landing in a pool of water, swimming, then climb up another wall to exit.

"It's incredibly narrow," Picard said. At one point, it is only 6 feet wide.

Park rangers give weather information but do not assess climbers' skills.

Warnings about flash floods happen almost daily during monsoon season, basically mid June through the end of September, Picard said. It's difficult to predict where in the park rain might fall and what canyons could flood.

After a flash flood warning has been issued, a call to close canyons to visitors can be made. Once hikers are in the park, it can be difficult to reach them.

Flash floods can develop with frightening speed in steep, narrow terrain. With the right storm in the wrong place, a bone-dry wash can turn into a torrent in minutes as rain falling across a large catchment is funneled down and through one narrow gap.

"The change is instantaneous," said Geoff Moret, a hydrologist for the National Park Service.

The risk is greatest in places like Zion during monsoon season, when strong, localized thunderstorms can drop an inch of rain in an hour at one location.

When channeled into a steep canyon, that one inch can quickly become several feet of water moving "as fast as you can run," Moret said.

Visitors to canyon country should pay close attention to the weather forecast and their surroundings, he said.

"If you are in a canyon with no escape route and you see thunder clouds forming overhead, that's not a safe place to be. You should get out. You can't really outrun these things."

Moret said sometimes the safest thing to do is to change your plans.

"Don't get so focused on your trip that you overlook safety," he said. "Always have a Plan B. And if there are storms in the forecast, maybe go to your Plan B trip."

Prior to this week, the last flood-related death in Zion was in September 2014.

'We know who gives strength'

Little was available about the individuals who died in the Hildale flood.

A post on a Washington County sheriff's office emergency response page included information about how to donate money to their families. It listed the names Josephine, Naomi and Della, but nothing more.

Three children survived. Two were taken to a hospital, and one was still hospitalized Wednesday.

Utah Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox declined an interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal but told the Associated Press he talked to a boy who survived by climbing out a car window and jumping off the roof. He was 9 or 10 and lost his mother and several siblings.

"Check that. 20 likely victims from the same storm," Cox said on Twitter. "Head is swimming. Shouldn't have to do math when talking about real people's lives lost."

The cost of the storm's damage has not been determined. There are no plans to request federal disaster aid.

A team that searched through the World Trade Center towers after the Sept. 11 attacks is assisting the Utah National Guard in trying to find Tyson Lucas Black, the last person missing.

Hildale and Colorado City form a two-state single community of almost 8,000, most of whom are part of the polygamist Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Warren Jeffs, who led the sect, was sentenced in 2011 to life in prison for sexually assaulting one of his child brides. The FLDS is not recognized by the Mormon church.

A 22-year-old woman wearing a purple dress, almost long enough to cover her muddy boots, walked through the flood path Wednesday morning with two boys. She who would not give her name while she photographed uprooted trees and an impaled car.

"That's what the rain does around here," she said. "Brings all the people out."

Tuesday's media presence drew the attention of hundreds of locals, who climbed estate walls and drove circles around town to catch a glimpse of the action.

It was a different scene Wednesday. Mostly emergency crews and media filled the streets, surrounded by devastation.

"We know who gives strength," the woman said with a smile.

Reporters Henry Brean and Kimber Laux contributed. Contact Kimberly De La Cruz at kdelacruz@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0381. Find her on Twitter: @KimberlyinLV.