Arizona’s National Guard rescued more than 100 people from a flood-impacted area of Grand Canyon National Park in the US as search efforts for a missing hiker continued.
Guard members used a UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter to evacuate 104 tourists and tribal members from a canyon on the lands of the Havasupai Tribe within the park on Saturday, video from the Arizona National Guard showed.
Flooding triggered by monsoon storms on Thursday forced local authorities to shut down the area to tourists and prompted several emergency evacuations.
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Tribal leaders also closed the remote village of Supai, located about 13km below the rim of the Grand Canyon, the Havasupai Tribal Council said in a news release on Saturday.
On Thursday, flash flooding inside Grand Canyon National Park swept hiker Chenoa Nickerson, 33, into Havasu Creek, according to the National Park Service, and search and rescue operations are ongoing.
Nickerson, of Gilbert, Arizona, may have been swept away amid the flash flooding near the Colorado River confluence, according to a Friday news release from the park service.
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Nickerson was not wearing a life jacket at the time, the release said.
Several hikers became stranded during the flash flood early Thursday afternoon, the park service said. A rescue flight was sent to recover the stranded hikers both below and above Beaver Falls, but Nickerson remained missing, according to the release.
Her sister, Tamara Morales, said, “We remain hopeful that she will be found safely,” according to CNN affiliate KNXV.
Nickerson’s husband was safely rescued, Morales told KNXV.
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“We love her very much and are not giving up on her,” Morales said of her sister. “We want all efforts focused on the search and finding her safely.”
Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs activated the Arizona National Guard to assist with rescue efforts on the Havasupai Indian Reservation, which is surrounded by Grand Canyon National Park, according to KNXV. CNN meteorologists say no rain is forecast for the area in the coming days.
‘We crossed rivers, formed human chains’
A married North Carolina couple told CNN as they hiked in the Havasupai Indian Reservation on Thursday, nothing could have prepared them for what was about to happen.
Shruti Chopra, 34, knew rain was in the forecast but said she didn’t anticipate it would result in intense flash flooding. “It did not even occur to us that we were in danger,” she told CNN.
She and her husband, along with a family of four, ducked into a cove to avoid getting drenched, Chopra said. As they waited for the rain to stop, a man riding a mule, who Chopra described as a Native American, spotted them and yelled, “Higher ground! Higher ground!”
Sensing the panic in his voice and seeing how fast the area was starting to flood, they started climbing. After reaching higher ground, the group of six set off for the nearest village.
“For the next three hours, we crossed rivers, formed human chains and hacked through the thorny bushes and cacti,” Chopra said. At one point, she said, a huge boulder crashed right in front of them, hitting a tree, which sent a large branch in their direction.
After arriving at the village, Chopra said they were greeted by other hikers. The National Guard evacuated her and her husband to safety Saturday morning.
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