
At least 62 people were evacuated on Saturday after flooding destroyed footbridges and damaged a campground and cabins near Bright Angel Creek in Arizona, the National Park Service said.
One person was confirmed dead and about 15 people were missing or unaccounted for at Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona after a flash flood swept through the canyon, park officials said on Sunday. The flooding buried trails beneath rock slides, washed out footbridges and cut off access to a remote area on Saturday, forcing hikers to be evacuated by helicopter.
The National Park Service said late Sunday that it had recovered the body of a 46-year-old man near Crystal Rapids along the Colorado River but provided no additional information.
The Park Service said it was seeking members of the public who knew of hikers or backpackers who were in Bright Angel Canyon and the Phantom Ranch area on Saturday “as well as anyone who had a campground reservation in the affected corridor,” the service said in a statement.
“These were individuals either on a backcountry itinerary in the inner canyon or believed to be day hiking along the North Kaibab/Phantom Ranch area,” Joelle Baird, a spokeswoman for Grand Canyon National Park, said in an email on Sunday.
The Park Service announced late Sunday that water supplies to the park from the canyon had been disrupted, forcing it to impose major water restrictions.
Day visits and dry camping will still be allowed, but overnight accommodations will close starting Monday, including El Tovar, Bright Angel Lodge, Maswik Lodge, Phantom Ranch, Yavapai Lodge and Trailer Village.
Park workers and the Arizona Department of Public Safety “are continuing evacuation and response efforts and working to account for individuals who may have been in the affected area,” the Park Service said.
Two helicopters from the Park Service and the state’s Department of Public Safety searched the North Kaibab Trail corridor as well as the Colorado River from the mouth of Bright Angel Creek to the Deer Creek Narrows on Sunday morning, Ms. Baird said.
“No missing individuals were located during these flights,” she said.
One of the missing hikers is John Giusti, a father of three children and chiropractor from Granbury, Tex.
Mr. Giusti, 46, was hiking the Grand Canyon for the first time with two of his friends, his younger sister Valerie Gibbs said in an interview.
It is unclear if those friends remain missing, but in a separate Facebook post that was later deleted on his business page, his wife, Janet Giusti, said that the hiking group he was with “is among those currently reported missing and unaccounted for.”
“We ask our ChiroHabit community to please lift up my husband, his hiking group, and our families in your thoughts and prayers during this time,” the post said.
Ms. Gibbs described her brother as a fit and active person who did a lot of hiking and running. She said that relatives were last able to get in contact with him on Saturday around 2 p.m., before the floods began.
Mr. Giusti was documenting his trip to the Grand Canyon on his business Facebook page, where he shared photos on Friday from the first day of his trip.
Ms. Gibbs said she does not know much else.
“I just know they found 100 people, and he wasn’t one of them,” she said.
At least 62 people were evacuated from the tourist spot after the flooding caused significant damage on Saturday afternoon, park officials said in a separate statement.
Those who were evacuated were transported to the Maswik Lodge food court on the South Rim, where the American Red Cross was helping. No injuries have been reported, park officials said.
“Nearly all footbridges spanning Bright Angel Creek were destroyed, eliminating pedestrian access across the creek,” the Park Service said.
At Bright Angel campground, Daniel Evans, 43, was stretched out with a book when he heard the first sounds of trouble at about 11 a.m. on Saturday. There was a rumble that sounded like a freight train, and then he noticed that Bright Angel Creek was suddenly a torrent of logs and debris.