Torrents of floodwater strike swimmers
Rain surge from thunderstorm sweeps people down creek in Arizona forest
Nine people died and a 13-yearold boy was missing after their group of family and friends was swept away while cooling off in a creek that suddenly turned treacherous when a rainstorm upstream unleashed floodwaters in Arizona’s Tonto National Forest.
Gila County Sheriff’s Detective David Hornung said that the group from the Phoenix and Flagstaff areas had met up for a daytrip along the popular Cold Springs swimming hole near Payson in central Arizona and were playing in the water when muddy flood waters came roaring down the canyon.
The group, ranging in age from 2 to 60, had set out chairs to lounge on a warm summer day when kilometres upstream an intense thunderstorm dumped heavy rainfall on the mountain. “They had no warning. They heard a roar, and it was on top of them,” Water Wheel Fire and Medical District Fire Chief Ron Sattelmaier said.
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 3.2km 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 downstream, they would have been sent over a 6m waterfall, Alexander said.
Alexander and others tried to reach them but couldn’t. Rescuers arrived a short time later.
“We were kinda looking at the water; it was really brown. Literally 20 seconds later you just see like hundreds of gallons of water smacking down and debris and trees getting pulled in. It looked like a really big mudslide.”
Video she posted to social media showed torrents of water surging through jagged canyons carved in Arizona’s signature red rock.
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 3.2km down the river. Authorities did not identify them. Four others were rescued and taken to Banner hospital in nearby Payson for treatment of hypothermia.
Rescuers got to the four victims quickly after the crew heard their cries while they were nearby helping an injured hiker. Daniel Bustamante, 16, sat on a bench with his friend Daniel Rodriguez outside the local mortuary in Payson where victims were brought. He said he came from Phoenix after getting a message from a friend.
The flash-flooding hit at Cold Springs canyon, 160km northeast of Phoenix.
Hornung said the treacherously swift waters gushed for about 10 minutes before receding in the narrow canyon.
He estimated floodwaters reached 1.8m-high and 12m wide.
The National Weather Service, which had issued a flash-flood warning, estimated up to 3.8cm of rain fell over the area in an hour.
The thunderstorm hit about 12km upstream along Ellison Creek, which quickly flooded the narrow canyon where the swimmers were.