Crews to resume search for 2 missing people

Alyssa Baltrus, chief of interpretation and visitor services at Zion National Park, said weather conditions made it too dangerous to search for the hikers Monday night, and because of the structure of Keyhole Canyon, it is unlikely that search crews will find the last missing hiker alive.

The deaths come after 12 people died when fast-moving floodwaters swept away two vehicles Monday near the Utah-Arizona border, about 20 miles south of the park.

Three women and nine children died in the flooding in Hildale.

The park service regularly warns people about the possibility of flash floods, according to the park Facebook page. By that time, park officials say there was no way to reach them in time to alert them to the violent floodwaters coming their way.

Pulsipher said in the briefing that three of the confirmed dead are adults; the other nine were children.

Zion National Park officials officials held a press conference Wednesday at 10 a.m. regarding the Keyhole Canyon fatality incident. Park officials say seven hikers were canyoneering in a narrow and short slot canyon called Keyhole.

SOUTHERN UTAH – Recent storms in Sothern Utah have culminated in flash flooding that has killed 18 and left two missing, including a 6-year-old boy, in Hildale and Zion National Park.

On Monday, September 14, 2015, Steve Arthur and his wife Linda were hiking in Zion National Park in Utah when a series of flash floods hit the area.

Six of the hikers are confirmed dead.

This remote enclave is best known as home to polygamists who are part of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a sect that splintered from the Mormon Church.

The names of the children, ranging from 4 to 11 years old, weren’t disclosed. Some rappelling routes end in pools of water where canyoneers unhook their equipment and swim out.

Curt Walker, a professor of biology at Dixie State University who has been canyoneering through Keyhole more than a dozen times, said it requires at least some skill and typically equipment like ropes and wetsuits, but ordinarily is a short, simple canyon.

Virginia Black watched in horror from her house as she made a video of the once-in-a-century flash flood.

While rangers try to impress the danger of flash flooding during the permit process, once people have entered the canyons, there’s no way to tell them that waters have started to rise, Picard said. It’s considered an entry-level canyon for people who have some experience but are still new to the sport.

“That little bit of rain can turn what was a very comfortable daylong excursion into a horror story, literally in a split-second”, Allen said.