'Raging killer currents': 2 dead, 1 missing in Grand Canyon floods

Updated Aug. 31, 2026, 10:49 p.m. ET

Devastating flooding at the Grand Canyon has left at least two people dead and at least one person unaccounted for, according to the National Park Service.

Park officials said on Aug. 31 that more than 82 people had been evacuated and at least one person was confirmed to be missing after significant flash flooding swept through parts of the Grand Canyon.

Two bodies have been recovered after flash flooding tore through the area, the NPS said Aug. 31. Initially, the body of a 46-year-old man was recovered near Crystal Rapids along the Colorado River, the Grand Canyon National Park said in a 6:30 p.m. Aug. 30 update on the flooding.

Details about the second fatality were not immediately provided.

Park officials said the one person confirmed to be missing was based on park permit records, including people rafting on the river or camping overnight. The park’s chief ranger said it’s unclear if there were additional day hikers missing.

Authorities urged anyone who knows of hikers or backpackers who were in the inner canyon along the Bright Angel Creek corridor on Aug. 29, as well as anyone with a campground reservation in the affected area, to call (888) 653-0009.

“This includes individuals who may have been traveling along the North Kaibab Trail from the North Kaibab Trailhead to Phantom Ranch, staying at Bright Angel Campground, or traveling or staying in the area known as ‘the Box’ north of Phantom Ranch,” according to a park news release.

Almost all of the footbridges spanning Bright Angel Canyon were destroyed, cutting off hiker access, the park service said. The Colorado River was closed to river traffic due to debris in the water.

The flooding caused “extensive damage to inner canyon infrastructure,” including a waterline, which supplies the park, officials said. The park will implement stage 4 water restrictions on the South Rim starting at noon local time on Aug. 31, shuttering some overnight accommodations, turning off water spigots and prohibiting fires in some areas.

The park service warned that more thunderstorms and heavy rain were possible on Aug. 31, which could bring additional flooding, debris flows and rockfall. A flood watch remains in effect for all of northern and central Arizona, according to the National Weather Service outpost in Flagstaff.

“Flash flooding will be possible in creeks, normally dry washes, swimming holes, and over recently burned areas,” forecasters said. “Raging killer currents will be possible in side canyons and narrow slot canyons. Low-water crossings may be flooded.”

First flood victim identified as Texas chiropractor

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.

Worst flash floods in Arizona history

Flash flooding is a threat in the Southwest but only infrequently turns deadly. Still, there have been several infamous events when the weather overpowered people. On Aug. 12, 1997, flash flooding in lower Antelope Canyon killed 11 tourists − most of them foreign visitors, the Arizona Republic, part of the USA TODAY Network reported.

Afterward, the Navajo Nation closed the canyon to visitors for a year and implemented a series of safety measures.Six days before the Antelope Canyon disaster, six undocumented immigrants drowned near Douglas trying to cross a flooded drainage ditch from the Mexican border.

About one month later, on Sept. 11, 1997, two hikers died in flash flooding at the park. A third person survived after he was swept miles downstream from a storm that dropped only trace amounts at Phantom Ranch.

Six months later, two Boy Scouts from Gilbert and a man helping chaperone them drowned in a rain-swollen wash near Sunflower on March 28, 1998. The SUV carrying six people stalled in the rising water and all were swept off the roof of the vehicle. Three survived the fast, cold waters; three died.On Aug. 11, 2001, a 2-year-old New Mexico boy and his parents died in a flood while hiking near the tribal village of Supai, near the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. And on July 12, 2008, two undocumented immigrants drowned as a wash near Nogales flooded in a heavy thunderstorm. Weeks later, on Aug. 3, 2008, three people drowned near the Tohono O’odham Reservation when their vehicle was swept away as they attempted to cross a wash.

How much rain fell over the weekend in the area of the Grand Canyon flash floods?

The National Weather Service in Flagstaff began warning of the potential for thunderstorms and rain over the weekend on its social accounts as early as Thursday, Aug. 27.

On Saturday at 9:36 a.m. local time, the weather service posted on X of a risk of severe storms across much of central and northern Arizona, including the Grand Canyon.

In total, an observing station at Bright Angel reported 2.21 inches of rain on Aug. 29, according to National Weather Service data. That’s just about a half inch less than the normal total for all of August.

The total rain for August 2026 was 3.27 inches, according to National Weather Service data.

At 2:42 p.m., the weather service posted a flash flood warning, warning of life-threatening flash flooding in the North Rim area, Phantom Ranch, Point Sublime and the Cottonwood and Bright Angel campgrounds.

“Remain alert near normally dry washes, slot canyons and creeks which can become raging killer currents in a matter of minutes, even from distant rainfall,” the graphic from the NWS in Flagstaff on X stated.

Where in the Grand Canyon did the flood take place?

The flash flood took place at Bright Angel Canyon and Phantom Ranch on the bottom of the inner canyon in the park, a remote section only accessible by hiking, mule or rafting the Colorado River.

Why was there flash flooding in the Grand Canyon?

The region around the Four Corners – where Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado meet – is in the middle of its summer monsoon rain season.

That’s when the area typically receives a lot of its rainfall, said Josh Weiss, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service Weather Prediction Center.

High pressure in the atmosphere over the region has been in a favorable position to pull in “a lot of moisture” out of the Pacific and Mexico, Weiss said.

On top of that, over the past couple of weeks, a trough over the eastern Pacific has been in position to produce even heavier rain than typical from those storms for multiple days in a row, Weiss said.

When rainstorms occur, rain quickly flows into the narrow slot canyons the area is known for, making them very risky places to be, Weiss said. Large volumes of water can quickly flow into the canyons, as soil types in the area can’t absorb the rain and burn scars on the landscape also funnel the rainfall downslope.

Missing hiker tip line

The National Park Service is asking the public to provide information about 15 missing people after a significant flash-flood event in Bright Angel Canyon and the Phantom Ranch area.

People who know about anyone who may have been hiking or backpacking in those areas are being asked to contact the National Park Service Investigative Services Branch Tip Line at 888-653-0009 or by e-mail at nps_isb@nps.gov.

When submitting tips, people are being asked to give the person’s name, approximate location, travel plans, group size, clothing or backpack description, or when they were last known to be in the area.

Hiker recounts harrowing Grand Canyon evacuation

David Gregory, from Texas, told the Arizona Republic, part of the USA TODAY Network, that he hiked into Phantom Ranch on the morning of Aug. 29 with a friend and the friend’s two sons, ages 13 and 17. Heavy rain moved over the area that afternoon, and a ranger first told visitors to prepare for a possible evacuation.

Minutes later, the warning became an order to leave.

“Things just kind of escalated really quickly,” Gregory said.

Gregory and the others crossed a small bridge over the creek and moved to higher ground. He was eventually evacuated by helicopter. Workers later told him the bridge had been washed away.

“We were fortunate that we got across before the creek got bigger or before the debris came in and just completely took out that bridge,” Gregory said.

U.S. Rep. David Schweikert told the Republic he was rafting the Colorado River with friends when a distant roar began echoing through the Grand Canyon. Then his group rounded a bend near Bright Angel Creek.

“It sounded like a handful of locomotives coming through and smashing boulders,” Schweikert said.

Schweikert said he watched what appeared to be part of a metal building, bridge, or construction structure float into the river as boulders crashed together in the floodwater, scenes corroborated by other interviews with The Arizona Republic.

The rafting crew quickly recognized something was wrong and stopped the group east of where the floodwater was entering the Colorado River, Schweikert said. He later hiked out on the Bright Angel Trail, where he encountered some washed-out areas and saw water flowing in places that are normally dry.