A destroyed footbridge along Bright Angel Creek in the Grand Canyon after a monsoonal flash flood swept through the area, killing two hikers and prompting the rescue of 82 others.
A destroyed footbridge along Bright Angel Creek in the Grand Canyon after a monsoonal flash flood swept through the area, killing two hikers and prompting the rescue of 82 others.
A powerful flash flood tore through the bottom of the Grand Canyon over the weekend, killing two hikers and forcing the emergency airlift of dozens of campers and backpackers, as search and recovery efforts continued into Monday with one person still unaccounted for.
The flooding began around 2:30 p.m. local time on Saturday, when a monsoonal downpour sent torrents of water, rock and debris crashing through Bright Angel Canyon, washing out campgrounds and a popular hiking corridor near the historic Phantom Ranch. The National Park Service said 62 people were evacuated by air from the Phantom Ranch camping area and the lower North Kaibab Trail as the flooding intensified, with additional evacuations continuing into Sunday from Cottonwood Campground. By Monday evening, incident commander Dave Black said the total number rescued over the two days had climbed to 82.
Two deaths have been confirmed. The body of a 46-year-old man was recovered Sunday evening near Crystal Rapids along the Colorado River, and a second body was recovered Monday, though park officials have released no further details on that individual. One of the initial victims was later identified by family as Dr. John Giusti, a chiropractor and married father of three daughters. At the height of the search, park officials said as many as 14 people were considered missing or unaccounted for, a number that narrowed steadily throughout Monday as rangers cross-checked camping permits, license plates and family contacts to confirm people were safe. By late Monday, that number had fallen to just one, with Black telling reporters that nearly everyone previously listed as missing had since been located.
Survivors described a terrifying scramble to reach higher ground as the water rose with almost no warning. Parth Desai, a physician hiking through a narrow passage in Bright Angel Canyon with a group of colleagues and a park ranger, said the group watched the creek flood in real time. “We saw the creek flood, waterfalls coming up out of nowhere, boulders, mud, landslides happening everywhere,” he said. As the group made their way toward Phantom Ranch, a colleague shouted “Up, up, up, up!” as a roughly one-meter wall of debris bore down on them, forcing the group to scramble into a patch of cacti before being airlifted out by helicopter later that evening.
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Backpackers Gabriel Bergemann and David Gregory told ABC News that park rangers had ordered them to cross a footbridge over a raging creek to reach safety, only for the bridge to be swept away by a wall of water roughly ten minutes later. “If they hadn’t told us to evacuate when they did, I think a lot of people wouldn’t have made it,” Bergemann said. Another camper, Scott Svedin, who was staying with his wife at Bright Angel Campground when the evacuation order came, described struggling through knee-high water and mud to reach safety, calling the experience “something out of a movie.”
The threat has not fully passed. The National Weather Service issued a flood watch for the Grand Canyon region through at least Monday evening, warning that additional flash flooding remained possible across northern and central Arizona, and the park’s flood threat level was raised to a 3 out of 4 as rescue operations continued. Black said further heavy rain on Monday hampered search efforts, though he added that improving weather expected Tuesday should help crews locate the one remaining missing person, along with any day hikers who may have been caught in the flooding without a registered permit. Accurately tallying the number of people potentially affected has proven difficult, given that not everyone hiking or camping in the canyon at any given time is captured on a formal permit.
Phantom Ranch, the only lodging at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, reachable solely by foot, watercraft or mule, along with the Bright Angel Campground, the Phantom Ranch Canteen and cabins, and the entire North Kaibab Trail between the trailhead and Phantom Ranch, remain closed until further notice. Park officials have urged visitors to stay out of the affected areas as evacuation and recovery efforts continue. The National Park Service has asked anyone with information about hikers or backpackers who may have been in Bright Angel Canyon, the Phantom Ranch area, or the stretch of terrain known as “the Box” on Saturday afternoon to come forward with details.
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Arizona’s canyon country is no stranger to sudden, violent flash flooding during its late-summer monsoon season, when steep, rocky terrain can turn runoff into fast-moving, destructive water in a matter of minutes. In late August 2024, a 29-year-old woman was killed during a similar flash flood in the park’s Havasu Canyon area. Last summer, a separate disaster struck the park’s North Rim, when a lightning-sparked wildfire known as the Dragon Bravo fire destroyed roughly 70 structures, including the historic Grand Canyon Lodge. Flood watches remained in effect Monday evening not just for northern Arizona but stretching into parts of Utah and western Colorado, as forecasters warned the region’s monsoon pattern was likely to keep producing dangerous, fast-developing storms in the days ahead.
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