In Duncan, a rural Arizona town about 180 miles from Phoenix, weekend rains overwhelmed an earth dam built more than a century ago to hold back the Gila River, putting the town under inches of water. About 60 residents have been evacuated, Fire Chief Hayden Boyd said. The water was already receding, but more was needed to make it safe to return to the city, Boyd added. The flooding incident was one of several that recently wreaked havoc in a drought-stricken region stretching from Dallas, Texas to Las Vegas, Nevada — stranding tourists, closing highways and sending trees and rocks into downtowns. Heavy rain lashed the Dallas-Fort Worth area, causing road flooding and submerged vehicles as officials warned motorists to stay off the roads. And rescue teams in southern Utah have expanded their search for a missing hiker found trapped in flash floods. The episode demonstrated how worsening weather conditions can turn the region’s spectacular landscapes enjoyed by millions – including the spectacular red rock and limestone canyons – from picture-worthy paradises to life-threatening nightmares. The Rangers said their area that teams were searching for Jetal Agnihotri, a 29-year-old from Tucson, Arizona, now includes portions of the Virgin River that flow from the southern border of Zion National Park, where the Virgin River flows south. the city of Hurricane. Agnihotri was among a group of trekkers swept away by floodwaters rushing to a popular trekking spot in one of the park’s many gorges. Both the National Weather Service and Washington County, Utah, had issued flash flood warnings for the area that day. All the trekkers except Agnihotri found themselves on higher ground and were rescued after the water level receded. Her brother told a local TV station that she did not know how to swim. Zion National Park is among the most visited recreation areas in the United States, even though it often becomes dangerous and is placed under flood warnings by the National Weather Service. Flooding can pose a danger to experienced hikers and climbers, as well as many beginners who have flocked to the park since the pandemic fueled the outdoor recreation boom. Despite warnings, floods routinely trap people in the park’s canyons, which are as narrow as windows in some places and hundreds of feet deep. “Once you’re there, you’re just kind of SOL if (a flash flood) happens,” said Scott Cundy, whose Arizona-based hiking company leads visitors on guided tours of the park. Cuddy vividly remembers one time he was taking a group on a tour and turned around to see a wall of water barreling toward them. They hurried up to the Grand Canyon, a two-hour drive from Zion. Until a few moments ago, he hadn’t seen a single cloud in the sky. “It happens very quickly,” he said. Given the topography, Cundy will cancel his trips if there is even a hint of rain in Zion’s narrow canyons. Further southeast, nearly 200 hikers had to be rescued in New Mexico, where flooded roads left them stranded in Carlsbad Caverns National Park. In parks like Zion and Carlsbad Caverns, floods can transform canyons, slippery rocks and normally dry washes into deadly channels of fast-moving water and debris in minutes. In previous years, walls of water as high as buildings have swallowed vehicles, rolled boulders, uprooted trees and opened sinkholes where solid ground once stood. In September 2015, similar storms killed seven hikers who drowned in one of Zion’s narrow canyons. During the same storm, the bodies of 12 other people were found amid mud and debris miles away in the nearby town of Hilldale, Utah, a community on the Utah-Arizona border. A group of women and children were returning from a park in two cars when a wall of water surged out of a canyon and swept them downstream and into a flooded embankment, with one vehicle smashed beyond recognition. Three boys survived. The body of a 6-year-old boy was never found. Otherwise, businesses and trails remained closed in the city of Moab, Utah, which was inundated by flooding over the weekend. Trees, rocks and red-orange mud were washed into the city, with floodwaters carrying cars along the city’s main street. Although much of the region remains in a decades-long drought, climate change has made weather patterns more variable and left soils drier and less absorbent, creating conditions more prone to floods and monsoons. Flooding has swept through parts of southern Utah in and around Moab and Zion throughout the summer, causing streams of water to tumble from the region’s red rocks and spill over the sides of river banks.
Associated Press reporters Jamie Stengle, Terry Wallace and Jake Bleiberg in Dallas, Julie Walker in New York, Walt Berry in Phoenix and Brady McCombs in Salt Lake City contributed to this report.
