Two people died<\/a> and at least one is still missing. More than 80 people were airlifted out of the canyon, and the National Park Service is assessing the damage.<\/p>\nA storm of generational proportions \u2014 that is how some of the hikers described it in interviews with The Associated Press. Some talked about scrambling to higher ground as the rushing water approached. Others hunkered down under a ledge to avoid falling rocks. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt was for sure some of the worst acute fast-forming weather I have ever seen in my time, whether it\u2019s in the mountains or marine environments or in the desert Southwest,\u201d said Drew Harrell, an emergency medicine physician with University of New Mexico Hospital who was on a training mission at the time as medical director for Grand Canyon National Park.<\/p>\n
Harrell is no stranger to working in austere environments and has hiked rim-to-rim more than a dozen times. He and his team had checked the weather before starting their annual trip. They were more worried about afternoon temperatures stretching into the triple digits rather than rain.<\/p>\n
But this storm, Harrell said, seemed to come out of the blue just as his six-member group entered \u201cThe Box,\u201d the final 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) before Phantom Ranch, an oasis at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt went from relatively clear skies to blowing winds in the time frame of about a minute,\u201d he said, estimating the gusts at 40 mph (64 kph). <\/p>\n
Within minutes, torrential rains, gusting winds and even hail enveloped hikers along the creek. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe were concerned that there would be rocks and just flooding coming down from both sides of the canyon on top of us,\u201d said Parth Desai, another physician who was with the group.<\/p>\n
As emergency room doctors do, they weighed their options and calculated the risks as conditions changed around them.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe saw basically the flood, waterfalls coming up out of nowhere, boulders, mud, landslides happening everywhere,\u201d Desai said. \u201cAnd then we were concerned about a lightning strike.\u201d<\/p>\n
They made another run for it, heading down the trail toward Phantom Ranch. They maneuvered around cottonwood trees brought down by the first microburst when they saw more debris rushing toward them. They scrambled through cactus to reach higher ground. <\/p>\n
Up the creek at the Cottonwood Campground, Mike Sumaruk and his friend were relaxing after a nearly 7-mile (11-kilometer) hike down into the canyon. The wind started howling, and the rain intensified.<\/p>\n
\u201cI jumped into my tent because I thought it was going to blow away and was trying to hold it down,\u201d he said in a phone interview Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Then he heard this roar.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought it was like thunder in the distance, but it wasn\u2019t going away. And I said, that\u2019s not thunder, and I unzipped the tent and got out and saw the huge wall of water,\u201d Sumaruk said. \u201cWe just left everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Tulsa, Oklahoma, resident has hiked plenty of mountain peaks over the years, but this was his first time in the Grand Canyon. It was gorgeous, he said, lamenting that he wasn’t able to see more of the natural wonder.<\/p>\n
Sumaruk used an emergency phone at an unstaffed ranger station to contact park authorities, telling them he and about a dozen others were stranded. A park ranger traveling on foot eventually reached the group, and they waited until Sunday to be airlifted to the South Rim, where the Red Cross was waiting and counselors were on hand to help.<\/p>\n
Harrell shared Sumaruk’s appreciation for the park staff, particularly the rangers down in the canyon. He credited them with moving dozens of people at Phantom Ranch to safer areas before water took out the bridges.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey mitigated the opportunity for there to have been more serious loss of life or injuries,\u201d Harrell said.<\/p>\n
Tom Monroe and two friends set out early Saturday from the North Rim. Knowing it was monsoon season, and after seeing light rain the day before, they tried to keep an eye on the weather \u2014 though scant cellphone reception made that difficult. <\/p>\n
Monroe said they decided to proceed after one hiker they met told them the forecast looked mild. Another who had just climbed the trail reported the way was clear.<\/p>\n
They were aiming for Cottonwood Campground. In the first mile, it started sprinkling.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen it started just opening up, holy hell raining on us,\u201d said Monroe, 59, of Flagstaff, Arizona, who runs a business making custom food-storage bags for campers.<\/p>\n
The trio kept going, figuring it would let up. The downpour continued, mixed with thunder and lightning. Runoff started funneling down the trail. It looked almost like a river, Monroe said.<\/p>\n
One friend took shelter in a small alcove in the canyon wall. Monroe huddled under an overhang that protected him \u2014 not just from the water but also from sand, mud and rocks falling with it.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn either side you could see rocks the size of footballs or beach balls coming down the cliffs from the top,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The friend who was farther ahead had to scramble up a steep slope, where he grabbed tree roots to keep from getting swept away.<\/p>\n
The 20-minute downpour seemed to last forever, Monroe said.<\/p>\n
\u201cNone of us can really stop thinking about it,\u201d Monroe said in a phone interview Wednesday, safely back home in Flagstaff. <\/p>\n
Monroe and his friends already were planning to head outdoors again this weekend, just staying a little closer to home and doing some car camping.<\/p>\n
And Sumaruk is thinking about a return trip to the Grand Canyon whenever hikers are allowed again. He will be watching and waiting as the National Park Service begins the arduous process of rebuilding a key water-supply line that was severely damaged, fixing the miles of trail that were washed out and replacing the footbridges. <\/p>\n
He said he understands \u201cweather happens\u201d and it will take time for the canyon to recover. Years of research went into his first trip along with months of planning and training, and he is not giving up.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’m definitely going to give it another shot,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
Associated Press writers Russ Bynum in Savannah, Georgia, and Jamie Stengle in Dallas, contributed to this report. Montoya Bryan reported from Albuquerque, New Mexico.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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