A woman was found dead at the Grand Canyon National Park after a flash flood swept through a campsite, park officials said in a statement Friday.
Rebecca Copeland, 29, of Ann Arbor, Michigan, was on a rafting group on Wednesday that set up its overnight camp at a site about a quarter-mile from the canyon, National Park Service spokeswoman Kaitlyn Thomas told the Associated Press.
It’s not clear that the rafting group was aware of the flash flood watch issued Wednesday.
A different rafting group found Copeland and a second person who was reported missing, the park officials statement said. Five injured people were evacuated by air from the canyon, and one is in critical condition.
Thomas told the AP the injured were “very seriously bludgeoned by debris,” and didn’t know whether the other group was actively searching for Copeland at the time. “I am confident that the river community did know something was up but I imagine they were on the lookout.”
According to NPS, on July 14 at approximately 6:00 p.m., the Grand Canyon Regional Communications Center received a report of two individuals missing and multiple parties injured after flash flood activity impacted Tatahatso Camp near River Mile 38 on the Colorado River.
Grand Canyon Search and Rescue sent two paramedics to the scene to assess and treat patients. Active monsoonal weather in the area limited access to the scene for overnight search and rescue operations.
At approximately 2:30 a.m., one patient who was in critical condition was flown out via the Arizona Department of Public Safety (DPS) helicopter from the area. Four additional patients were evacuated by air on July 15 to the Flagstaff Medical Center; they are in stable condition at this time.
At approximately 11 a.m. on July 15, the Grand Canyon Regional Communications Center received a report that a commercial river trip had located the two missing individuals near Tatahatso Camp, one deceased and one uninjured.
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