A flash flood swept through Bright Angel Canyon and Phantom Ranch in Grand Canyon National Park on Saturday afternoon, killing one person and leaving 15 missing or unaccounted for, the National Park Service said. Sixty-two people were airlifted to safety.
The body of a 46-year-old man was recovered Sunday evening near Crystal Rapids on the Colorado River. Footbridges were destroyed and boulders propelled downstream. Survivors described sudden flooding on a clear day, with rangers directing evacuations to higher ground before helicopter extraction began around 21:30 local time.
Park rangers coordinated the evacuation of hikers and Phantom Ranch guests from remote canyon ledges where they had sheltered for hours. The lodge, a key tourist destination at the canyon bottom, saw its access bridges wiped out.
A separate filing describes a glacier-collapse flood on the Nepal-Tibet border on August 26 that has killed more than 900 in Nepal with over 4,000 missing, while Chinese authorities report 16 dead and 546 missing in Tibet; a Tibetan advocacy group says hundreds of homes were destroyed and casualties are significantly higher.