Arizona flash flood kills nine

Boy missing after wall of water hits canyon swimming hole

TONTO NATIONAL FOREST, ARIZ. — Nine people died and a 13-year-old boy was still missing Sunday after a furious flash flood tore through a group of family and friends cooling off in a creek in the Tonto National Forest in Arizona.

Gila County Sheriff ’s Detective David Hornung told The Associated Press that the group from the Phoenix and Flagstaff areas had met up for a day trip along the popular Cold Springs swimming hole near Payson in central Arizona and were playing in the water Saturday afternoon when muddy flood waters came roaring down the canyon.

The group had set out chairs to lounge on a warm summer day when, kilometres upstream, an intense thunderstorm dumped heavy rainfall on the mountain.

Search and rescue crews, including 40 people on foot and others in a helicopter, recovered the bodies of five children and four adults, some as far as three kilometres down the river. The victims ranged in age from a 60-year-old woman to a two-yearold girl. Authorities did not identify them. Four others were rescued Saturday and taken to hospital for treatment for hypothermia.

Rescuers got to the four victims quickly after the crew heard their cries while they were nearby helping an injured hiker.

The flash flooding hit Saturday afternoon at Cold Springs canyon, about 150 kilometres northeast of Phoenix, a popular recreation area easily reached by relatively easy hiking paths.

Hornung said the treacherously swift waters gushed for about 10 minutes before receding in the narrow canyon. He estimated flood waters reached six feet (1.8 metres) high and 40 feet (12 metres) wide.

Disa Alexander was hiking to the swimming area where Ellison Creek and East Verde River converge when the water suddenly surged. She was still about four kilometres away when she spotted a man holding a baby and clinging to a tree. His wife was nearby, also in a tree. Had they been swept farther downstream, they would have been sent over a six-metre waterfall, Alexander said.

Video she posted to social media showed torrents of muddy water surging through jagged canyons carved in Arizona’s signature red rock.

The thunderstorm hit more than 10 kilometres upstream along Ellison Creek, which quickly flooded the narrow canyon where the swimmers were.

“They had no warning. They heard a roar, and it was on top of them,” local fire chief Ron Sattelmaier said.