Rescuers saved some 80 people in Grand Canyon floods that left 2 dead and 1 missing, officials say

GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK, Ariz. — The bodies of a Texas chiropractor and at least one other person have been found after a major flash flood swept through the Grand Canyon. One person remains unaccounted for after about 80 others were rescued over the weekend, officials said Monday.

Saturday’s flash flood severely damaged the only water pipeline serving Grand Canyon National Park. Officials barred tourists from staying at lodges and hotels inside the park and issued emergency water restrictions for year-round residents. Waves of torrential rain hit the Bright Angel Creek area of the tourist destination that hosts 4.4 million visitors a year.

Grand Canyon Deputy Superintendent Brian Drapeaux said officials haven’t fully surveyed the damage, but the park has said about 40% of the pipeline is damaged.

Incident Cmdr. Dave Black said searchers used night vision and other equipment to find people who needed rescuing during the deluge. By sunset Saturday, 45 people were rescued, and 37 more were evacuated Sunday.

Rangers referred to the park’s permit system and checked vehicle license plates to track the number of missing people.

“As of right now, they have no reason to believe, from the tips we’ve been through so far, that there’s anybody besides the one” missing person, Black said during a news conference Monday evening.

The flood threatened people who hike far into the Grand Canyon

The flood happened deep in the canyon on Bright Angel Creek, which flows into the Colorado River near Phantom Ranch. The area has a set of historic dormitories, a canteen and a campground that is a popular stopover for river rafters and people hiking from one rim of the Grand Canyon to the other.

Scores of visitors had to be evacuated from by helicopter. They talked of a massive deluge and rangers warning of rockslides and saw huge pools of logs and debris rolling down the river as they stood nearby awaiting rescue.

Hiker Daniel Evans said it rained several times before the worst 30-minute downpour Saturday afternoon. He had been planning to rest through the hot day and spend the night near the hard-hit Bright Angel Campground area.

Earlier, rangers told him it looked to be safe. Then, as the rain poured, they told him it was time to go. He thought of Nepal and the massive floods and landslides that poured down mountain valleys last week.

“The entire time it was raining — the entire time I’m going through all this and packing — I’m just keeping my eyes upstream, just praying that a wall of water isn’t coming toward us,” Evans said.

One hiker killed is identified as rescuers search for his friends

The family of John Giusti said the Texas chiropractor set out Thursday on a trip he dreamed of with two buddies — Texas martial arts studio owner Brent Rosenkranz, 42, and Wyoming pilot Timothy Smith, 53. They planned to spend two nights at the bottom of the canyon fishing and hiking.

They spoke to their families Thursday and found their campsite Friday. They have not been heard from since, the three families said in a joint statement released Monday through a representative, Hannah Barricks.

All three men had ties to Granbury, Texas. Their families said they planned “several days of hiking, camping, fishing and exploring together.”

Park officials said they recovered the body of a 46-year-old man Sunday evening near Crystal Rapids along the Colorado River and, later, recovered a second body but provided no other details.

The families of the hiking group had no updates, Barricks said late Monday.

It’s ‘monsoon season’ in the Grand Canyon

Visiting the Grand Canyon can be particularly dangerous in the summer because of the risk of flash flooding that accompanies the monsoon, or rainy season. Clear days can quickly give way to thunderstorms and downpours.

Rain also fell on part of the Dragon Bravo Fire scar, a burn area left by a lightning-caused wildfire in July 2025. It burned for days before exploding into a fast-moving conflagration that forced evacuations and consumed the historic Grand Canyon Lodge, some cabins and other structures on the North Rim.

Without vegetation, a barren burn scar allows runoff to flow more quickly.

The steep, rocky nature of the canyon itself funnels water rapidly. What might be a normal summer downpour somewhere else can become a charging wall of water in the canyon.

El Niño has this year’s monsoon in the desert especially intense

This year’s monsoon is especially intense because there is a higher amount of water vapor in the atmosphere, mostly because of a strong El Niño, said A. Park Williams, a hydroclimatologist at the University of California, Los Angeles.

The natural warming of parts of the Pacific Ocean can warp weather globally. That extra water vapor in the Southwest U.S. gets wrung out in the storm in the form of rainfall, he said.

The link to human-caused climate change and the heavy Arizona rain is pretty strong, said climate scientist Daniel Swain of the California Institute for Water Resources.

A few months ago, Swain and colleagues published a study in the journal Weather and Climate Extremes finding that during the summer, short-term intense downpours in the West — akin to the one that hit the Grand Canyon — have become 10% stronger since 2000.

The flood knocks out the canyon’s water supply line

The flood was a major blow to an enduring effort to modernize the water pipeline that serves visitors and the roughly 1,600 residents of Grand Canyon Village.

A $208 million rehabilitation of the pipeline and upgrades to the associated water delivery system started in 2023, with the park service calling it a crucial investment to ensure the park can meet the needs of residents and visitors. The project was expected to be completed next year, though that timeline is now unclear.

While the Grand Canyon has large storage tanks for potable water on the South Rim, they won’t be refilled because the pipeline is out of service.