Men who lost wives, kids grateful for support

Searchers continue to comb through mud and debris for the remaining victims of a flash flood Thursday, September 17, 2015, in Hildale, Utah. Authorities are searching for other h…

The Keyhole Canyon at Zion in southern Utah where the hikers were killed is what canyoneers call a “rap and swim” canyon, full of a series of drops where hikers rappel down into pools of water, Allen said.

The local water department issued the voluntary boil advisory after the Monday flood swept through the sister cities of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Arizona.

There were no public plans for a memorial service Thursday, and few outward signs of grief after the floodwaters swept away two cars Monday.

(Michael Chow/The Arizona Republic via AP). Floodwaters swept away multiple vehicles in the Utah-Arizona border town, killing several people and leaving others missing. Search and rescue teams found Mertlich at about 5:15 p.m.

Days after 12 women and children died in flash flooding in a polygamous town on the Utah-Arizona border, a momentarily unified community appears to be splintering again down its religious lines.

In Zion, killed were California residents Mark MacKenzie, 56, of Valencia; Linda Arthur, 57, and Steve Arthur, 58, both of Camarillo; Gary Favela, 51, of Rancho Cucamonga; Muku Reynolds, 59, of Chino; and Robin Brum, 53, of Camarillo. The seventh flooding victim was Don Teichner, 55, of Mesquite, Nevada.

Though some of them were new to the sport of canyoneering, park policy prevents rangers from assessing their skill level or stopping them from entering canyons, even after repeated warnings of flood risk Monday.

Six people have been found dead downstream after Monday’s flash flooding, but the danger of more rising water kept rescuers out of the canyon itself until Thursday.

“My family was evicted from our home recently”.

One of the children who survived deadly flash flooding in a small polygamous town on the Utah-Arizona border told an official he escaped by cutting through an air bag, climbing out a window and jumping off the roof of a vehicle. A 6-year-old boy is still missing. Three survived, including the boy, and one child remains missing.

Mertlich’s family reported him missing Tuesday, saying he typically drives the back roads in the area, the Mohave County sheriff’s office said. It evoked memories of a 1997 incident near Page, Arizona, where 11 hikers died after a wall of water from a rainstorm miles upstream thundered through Lower Antelope Canyon, a narrow, twisting series of corkscrew-curved walls located on Navajo land.

Cox says the boy he spoke with “was still very shaken, as you can imagine, because it was a little surreal to him and everyone”.

Officials believe the group entered Keyhole Canyon late Monday afternoon, after some of those new to canyoneering took a course, he said.

He said Keyhole Canyon is one of the shorter, more popular routes at Zion National Park, mostly attracting hikers and canyoneers but not the average tourist.

In an earlier identification, the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department in Southern California said Sgt.

Black lost his wife and four daughters.

Joe Braun, a canyoneering guide who lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan, visited Keyhole Canyon last week when the weather was calm. But dozens of adventure-seekers go anyway.

Aside from one spot near the canyon’s entrance, “there really is no high ground”. “You’re in a slot pretty much the whole way”, Eaker said.