At least one person remains missing and two are dead following devastating flash floods in the Grand Canyon over the weekend.
Flash floods swept through some of the park’s most celebrated sites following an afternoon thunderstorm on Saturday, according to the National Park Service. Emergency responders were working to evacuate people from the area within an hour and a total of 82 people were rescued, many by helicopter.
Park officials said at least two men were found dead. Another person is missing based on park permit records. It’s unclear if there are additional day hikers who were swept up in the floods.
“We’re still actively searching,” Dave Black, an NPS official heading the emergency response at the park, said of the missing person. Continued rains and risk of flash floods have hampered the search and recovery efforts.
“We’re absolutely holding out hope,” Black said.
Park officials said they hope clearer weather in the coming days will allow emergency personnel to better search the canyon. Authorities asked anyone with information about people still unaccounted for at the park to call (888) 653-0009.
How many hikers are missing?
08:17 AM ET, September 1 2026, Michael Loria
Park officials were unable to share an estimate on the number of day hikers who could be potentially missing in the park.
Unlike park visitors rafting on the river or camping in the canyon overnight, day hikers do not need an official permit to walk to the canyon trails.
Chief Ranger Justin Cully said the flash floods hit after the peak season for visitors but he noted that the waters still hit a “very common area for day hikes” at a “common time for people to come down.”
“There could have been a number of day hikers,” he said.
Park superintendent asked about staffing cuts
08:04 AM ET, September 1 2026, Michael Loria
Brian Drapeaux, the deputy superintendent of the national park, downplayed the impact that staffing cuts imposed by the Trump administration may have had on the park’s preparedness for the flash flooding emergency.
“As a federal agency we’re always in a position to adjust to the changing circumstances in Washington,” Drapeaux told reporters Monday evening in response to a question about whether cuts hampered the park’s response. “We were able to identify, sustain the safety of and eventually evacuate the vast number of people in harm’s way.”
Drapeaux tied the extent of the damage caused by the flash floods to 2025 wildfires that left the area vulnerable to debris flows following heavy rains.
He also said that park officials were investigating why a flash flood alert system went off during the deluge and then suddenly went offline. Drapeaux said it was not yet clear how the system going offline affected park officials’ response to the emergency.
First flood victim identified as Texas chiropractor
07:47 AM ET, September 1 2026, Michael Loria
At least one victim of the flooding has been identified.
John Giusti, a chiropractor with an independent practice outside Dallas and Forth Worth, was found dead on Monday, friends and business associates said on social media. Giusti was known as a “devoted father to his three beautiful girls.”
“John was a real-life superhero to everyone blessed enough to know him. As a dedicated chiropractor, he truly lived to treat and heal, pouring his soul into helping others move through the world with strength and comfort,” said Carrie Smith in a Facebook post. “Beyond his practice, he was a man of electric energy and boundless passion—an avid runner, an enthusiast of fast cars, and a massive fan of comic books and legendary heroes.”
She added: “Out of all the titles he carried, his absolute favorite was being a devoted father to his three beautiful girls.”
Giusti was hiking the canyon with friends Brent Rosenkrantz and Tim Smith, according to Smith and other friends. Rosenkrantz and Smith remain missing.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: ‘Holding out hope’: 2 dead, 1 missing after Grand Canyon flooding
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