Sheriff: Body of man missing since flash flooding on Utah-Arizona

Seven avid hikers in safety helmets, wetsuits and climbing harnesses smiled for a group photo before heading into the mouth of a narrow canyon in Zion National Park in Utah.

More than six-tenths of an inch fell over the park in less than an hour Monday afternoon, with flows in one of the tributaries to the Virgin River spiking from 50 cubic feet per second to more than 2,500 feet per second in one 15-minute period.

About 60 staffers from the National Park Service and local emergency responders were out Wednesday morning, Ranger Therese Picard said during a press conference at Zion’s emergency operation center.

Authorities say searchers have found the body of a fifth hiker killed in flash flooding that swept through a narrow canyon at Utah’s Zion National Park.

Park officials said Linda Arthur’s body was found earlier Thursday a few miles from the sandstone gorge where the group got trapped during a violent rainstorm, in an area that had been unreachable previously amid fears of more flooding. Rain and continuing flooding hampered the initial effort to find the hikers, but conditions improved by Thursday, it said. The Sheriff’s Office said he was known to drive back roads.

The department said in a statement that Arthur was a 21-year-veteran who worked as a traffic supervisor in the city of Camarillo and has three children and seven grandchildren. Steve Arthur, 58, was on the trip.

Authorities have not identified the remaining victims.

Around 300 search and rescue workers were looking f or Tyson Lucas Black, who turned 6 years old in August, officials said. But dozens of adventure-seekers go anyway.

Searchers found Tuesday the seventh and final victim of a flash flood that tore through a slot canyon in Zion National Park and wiped out an entire party of climbers.

Flash flood warnings happen nearly daily during monsoon season, Picard said.

Park officials say they warned the group when they got their permit that there was a 40 percent chance of rain and flash flooding. It’s not uncommon in the polygamous sect for relatives to marry the same man.

Hours after they entered Keyhole Canyon, dark skies unleashed fierce rains that sent water surging through the chasm, sweeping the seven people to their deaths Monday.

“He’d carry a watermelon in his backpack, and he’d usually be the first one up there, and he’d serve everybody”, Sisung said of MacKenzie, who had three children.

Experienced canyoneers constantly look for escape routes and opportunities to move to high ground if the need arises, Braun said.

Brian Anderton with the Salt Lake Regional Incident Management Team said Wednesday that they are focusing on the area closest to where two vehicles carrying the women and children were swept away Monday. Ryan Mertlich’s auto was discovered heavily damaged in a flood plain about 15 miles west of Colorado City.

Days later, rescuers searching for their bodies found a camera revealing the final group photo.

Zion spokeswoman Aly Baltrus said some members of the group were new to canyoneering, but they took a class to prepare.

The bodies of the women and nine of the children have been recovered.

Three people survived, 12 were confirmed dead and crews are searching for the 16th person.