The Grand Canyon has been ranked the deadliest national park. It has the most missing person reports, deaths and even suicides from 2018 through the first two months of this year. FOX Weather’s Max Gorden reports.
GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK, Ariz. — A search is under way for a hiker who was swept away during a flash flood inside Arizona‘s Grand Canyon National Park on Thursday that left hundreds of other hikers stranded.
Heavy rains flooded Havasu Creek Thursday afternoon, stranding around 200 hikers, including several above and below Beaver Falls, according to National Park Service officials.
Rescuers arrived via helicopter to assist but learned a 33-year-old woman had been swept into the raging Havasu Creek about a half mile above the Colorado River confluence and was still missing.
The woman, identified as Chenoa Nickerson, is described as 5 feet 8 inches tall, weighing 190 pounds with brown hair and blue eyes, NPS officials said. She was wearing a black tank top, black shorts and blue hiking boots, but not wearing a life jacket, officials said.
‘It was very scary’
Rochelle Tilousi, who lives near Havasu Creek, told FOX 10 Phoenix Thursday started out as a beautiful day with clear skies, but clouds rolled in by 11 a.m., and an hour later, heavy rain came down for at least 30 minutes.
“It was very scary,” said Tilousi. “That’s the second-biggest flood I’ve ever experienced in my life.”
Officials with the National Weather Service said the area received between 1-2 inches of rain within 60-90 minutes.
Many tourists lost all of their belongings as they rushed to higher ground during the severe thunderstorm, FOX 10 reported.
“We had to cross a lot of water crossings,” Mimbs told FOX 10. “A lot of the bridges washed out, but we made it back. The tribe let us stay inside one of their buildings, last one with about 200 people.”
FOX 10 reports over 100 people still need a helicopter ride out of the west end of the Grand Canyon as of Friday night, with rescues still ongoing.
Meanwhile, if you have any information on Nickerson’s location, you’re asked to call the NPS ISB Tip Line at (888) 653-0009.