4 still missing after deadly flash floods hit Utah-Arizona border area

Park spokeswoman Holly Baker said a group of four men and three women set out on Monday before officials closed slot canyons that evening due to flood warnings.

The hikers, from California and Nevada, were all in their 40s and 50s, Baker said.

Lydia Wyler was out with her 7-year-old daughter Monday afternoon when their SUV was hemmed in by the floodwaters. However, mitigation projects have reduced the number of floods in Ute Pass, Manitou Springs and parts of west Colorado Springs.

At least 16 people have died in flash floods in a rural community in the mid-western United States.

‘At about 5pm, two vehicles were hit by floodwaters and were swept into the flood, ‘ local official Michelle Catwin said.

The torrent was so fast, “it was taking concrete pillars and just throwing them down, just moving them like plastic”, said Lorin Holm, who called the storm the heaviest in the 58 years he’s lived in the community. It’s unclear if they’re all from the same family.

“We have been through so much because of the fractured nature of the community-between who is supporting Warren Jeffs and who is not supporting Warren Jeffs-and this is just compounding the heartache”, he said.

A family who recently moved into a house along the banks of Cheyenne Creek said they’ve learned about the 2013 flood but aren’t anxious.

Four people are still reported missing and about 650 Search and Rescue personal are assisting in finding the remaining missing people.

Three children survived. Eyewitnesses described the desperate rescue attempt.

Authorities say the victims are as young as four years old.

A woman and child examine a vehicle swept away during a flash… The same flood claimed at least three lives in nearby Zion National Park.

Utah Gov. Gary R. Herbert said: “I join with other Utahns in mourning today the lives lost in two tragic incidents at Zion National Park and Hildale”.

The ninth victim, the body of an approximately 10-year-old child, was found about noon on the Arizona side of the border about 5 miles from where the auto he was riding in was found. Another body was found about an hour later and two more an hour after that.

“Most of the people were thrown from the vehicles”, Barlow said. Photos posted on Twitter showed some of these residents watching as rescue crews searched for any survivors Tuesday afternoon.

Barlow says the flood waters rushed from behind those 16 people and they never saw it coming.

“It went rushing down, and it actually came around behind the vehicles and engulfed them down”, the mayor said.

Hildale is located around 500km south of Salt Lake City.

A wall of water swept away two automobiles carrying ladies and youngsters in a Utah-Arizona border city Monday, killing a minimum of 12 individuals. The names of those killed were not released Tuesday by officials.

The flash flood began Monday after heavy rains fell on canyons north of the town of Hildale, Utah, and sent waves of water into the town and its sister city, Colorado City, Ariz.