SANTA FE, NM — A flash flood that turned a series of idyllic, azure waterfalls into a monstrous brown foam was intense, but not unusual for the summer rainy season on the Havasupai Reservation, one of the most remote areas of the continental U.S. and draws visitors from around the world.
But this time, the torrent of water that sent hundreds of hikers scrambling to higher ground — some into nooks and caves in the canyon walls — turned deadly.
A woman was swept away by the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon, setting off a days-long search and rescue effort by the National Park Service. The search took place in a unique environment, far beyond cell phone range: desert canyons accessible only by foot, mule or helicopter.
Three days later and 19 miles (30 kilometers) downstream, a recreational river rafting group would complete the search. Afterward, survivors and rescuers clung to stories of shared grief, gratitude and respect for waters that unexpectedly turned violent.
The day of the flash flood began for hikers who descended into a green canyon before sunrise for an eight-mile trek over winding trails to a village in the heart of the Havasupai Reservation.
From there, tourists walk to their bucket list destinations: a series of majestic waterfalls and a campground on the creek. The canyon’s normally blue-green waters draw tourists from all over the world.
Physical therapist Hanna St. Denis, 33, traveled from Los Angeles to see the natural wonders on her first-ever overnight backpacking trip with a friend. She set out before sunrise last Thursday and reached the last of the three iconic waterfalls around noon.
A steady rain came. Below Beaver Falls, a swimmer noticed a faster current. Water began to shoot out of the canyon walls, dislodging rocks as the creek turned chocolate-colored and swelled.
“It slowly turned brown around the edges and widened, and then we were out,” St. Denis said. She and other hikers climbed a ladder to higher ground with no way down as the water rose. “We saw huge trees being ripped out of the ground, roots and all.”
She had no way to call for help or see around the corner of the chasm.
At a nearby campsite, 55-year-old Michael Langer of Fountain Hills, Arizona, saw water flowing into the canyon from other spots.
“Ten seconds later, a tribesman came running through the campsites yelling, ‘Flash flooding, emergency evacuation, run to higher ground,’” Langer said.
Nearby, the roaring Mooney Falls swelled to monstrous proportions as soaked hikers ran to a raised ledge and clung to the crevices.
At 1:30 p.m., officials in Grand Canyon National Park, adjacent to the Havasupai area, began receiving emergency calls from devices that can send SOS alerts, text messages and voice calls via satellite to areas not reachable by cell phone.
“The narrowness of that canyon makes it very difficult to communicate. There was no clear picture initially of the extent of the loss of life or injuries,” said Joelle Baird, a spokesperson for the park.
The park struggled with exaggerated reports of mass casualties, but confirmed an alarming event. Two hikers — a man and a woman — were swept away by the flash flooding while hiking near the point where Havasu Creek flows into the Colorado River.
By 4 p.m., the weather cleared and the park was able to send a helicopter and quickly organize a ground patrol in the area, Baird said.
Andrew Nickerson, the husband, was picked up that night by a group rafting the 280-mile river that runs through the Grand Canyon.
“I was about to die when a random stranger jumped off his raft and without hesitation risked his life to rescue me from the raging waters,” Nickerson later wrote on social media.
His wife, 33-year-old Chenoa Nickerson, was swept into the main channel of the river and has disappeared without a trace. A search party was launched Friday for a missing brunette, tall with blue eyes. Like most hikers in Havasupai, she was not wearing a life jacket.
Arizona State climatologist Erinanne Saffell said the flash flooding in the canyon, while severe, was not unusual, even without taking into account human-caused global warming, which has led to greater weather extremes.
“It’s part of our monsoon season. The rain falls and has nowhere to go. So it can run off and cause a lot of damage to the people who are in the way,” she said.
Abbie Fink, a spokesperson for the Havasupai Tribe, said some tourists carry satellite communications equipment, but that “rangers on the ground — the tribal members who work there — are the best source of what’s happening” in a flash flood situation.
Realtor Shayla Brown and fiancé John Riggins traveled from Watford City, North Dakota, to see the falls on Riggins’ 40th birthday. As the floodwaters rose, they retreated to a cave in the canyon wall.
“There was no way to navigate the canyon because it was kind of a raging river,” said Riggins, an oil field worker.
“We had to set a fire, and we didn’t know it was an SOS signal,” but it was, Brown said.
A rescue helicopter appeared. Brown says she closed her eyes as they stepped onto a wooden pallet and cargo net that dangled beneath the helicopter.
“You hugged the cargo net as it flew us through the Grand Canyon. It was insane,” she said.
Other hikers gradually made their way back to Supai, spending the night on floors in a schoolhouse and a church. The path out of the canyon was impassable, for people or pack animals.
A private helicopter service struggled to keep up with the evacuations. Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs deployed the Arizona National Guard to help, sending a Blackhawk helicopter from Phoenix to the Grand Canyon.
The helicopter arrived in Supai Friday night to cheers from stranded tourists, said Erin Hannigan, a spokeswoman for the Arizona National Guard. Ten helicopter flights brought 104 evacuees to the canyon rim Saturday afternoon.
Deep in the Grand Canyon, the National Park Service was engaged in a difficult search for Chenoa Nickerson along the flooded Colorado River.
Satellite alerts were sent to rafting groups to be on the lookout. The agency flew a Zodiac speedboat to the river, but found the vessel was not designed to navigate through the flood debris.
On Sunday morning, a new plan emerged to intensify the search: a specially equipped rescue boat would travel about 150 miles downstream from Lee’s Ferry, where the rafting trips begin. That would be a daylong trip.
But before that could happen, word came. A group of river rafters spotted Nickerson’s lifeless body floating in the water.
More than three dozen rafting trips operate on the river every day, making it vital in search and rescue operations.
Rafters knew to be on their guard after calling the company that runs the trips during a thunderstorm on Saturday to learn that a woman was missing.
Rafters called again, this time to the National Park Service, and stayed with the body until a helicopter arrived to retrieve it from the canyon. That night, they took a moment to think, said John Dillon, executive director of the Grand Canyon River Outfitters Association.
“We are happy that we can at least contribute to her recovery, for the family,” said Dillon.
Andrew Nickerson declined to discuss the flash flooding but praised the park service and other search teams for their tireless work to find his wife. He credits a higher power for his own survival.
“My 2 daughters needed their daddy and God provided a way for me to come home to them,” he wrote on social media.
Other hikers were also very satisfied.
“I feel privileged to be able to walk and see the whole thing, to see it in all its beauty before it turned to chaos,” said St. Denis, who noted that she is the same age as the victim, 33. She found her camping tent wrapped around a tree and dug up her car keys under 3 feet (1 meter) of mud. “Most of the campsite is not really recognizable, there is no clear path anymore, no trail.”
Brown and Riggins said their backpacks containing credit cards, identification and an engagement ring were washed away in the flood just before their wedding day in February.
Coming home was an odyssey, Brown said. The helicopter dropped them off at a private ranch in Utah, where they borrowed a car from a stranger, boarded a small plane at a rural airport and then hailed an Uber ride to catch their original flight to Las Vegas.
“I truly believe there were angels on earth that day,” Brown said from Las Vegas International Airport. “They were put in our lives at that time, at the right time to get us where we needed to be.”
The Havasupai tribe announced Thursday that it is suspending tourist reservations until Oct. 1 while it surveys the muddy campsites, washed-out bridges and water-damaged homes. The village is home to a few hundred people, tribal offices, a remote U.S. post office, cafe, trading post and a dirt helicopter pad.
The tribe is appealing to federal and state authorities for disaster relief and has asked for donations for its members, including drinking water, horse and pet food, along with shovels, chainsaws and picks. These supplies will have to be flown into the canyon.
___
Peterson reported from Denver. Associated Press writer Felicia Fonseca in Flagstaff, Ariz., contributed.