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Hundreds Evacuated Amid Grand Canyon Flooding

Dam Ruptured Sunday Morning

POSTED: 3:11 pm PDT August 17, 2008
UPDATED: 6:47 pm PDT August 17, 2008

Hundreds of people have been carried to safety on helicopters after an earthen dam failed at the Grand Canyon.

KPHO-TV in Phoenix reported that the Redlands Dam ruptured around 6 a.m. Sunday. The breach after days of heavy rain caused some flooding in the village of Supai on the canyon floor.

Supai is home to about 400 Havasupai Reservationtribal members. The town is located about 30 miles northwest of Grand Canyon Village, a popular tourist area on the canyon's south rim.

The town was not flooded, but there were an estimated 247 campers at a nearby campground, Oltrogge said. At 1 p.m., 147 campers were accounted for, but 100 others remained missing, said Maureen Oltrogge of the Grand Canyon National Park.

The National Guard has provided three Black Hawk helicopters and the Arizona Department of Public Safety is dedicating all four of its helicopters to the rescue efforts, Oltrogge said.

Evacuees were being taken to a Red Cross shelter in Peach Springs, Ariz., about 60 miles southwest of Supai, Oltrogge said.

Oltrogge said 16 people were left stranded Saturday night on a ledge where Havasu Creek and the Colorado River join after flood waters carried their raft away.

Each person was being flown one at a time to the other side of the Colorado River where they will board a helicopter and be flown to the Hualapai Hilltop. Those evacuees will also be transported to the American Red Cross shelter in Peach Springs.

Officers, sheriff's deputies and rescuers from eight public safety agencies are working to coordinate the evacuation in Supai Canyon, said Coconino County Sheriff Bill Pribil.

National Park Service employees are trying to contact members of rafting parties who have not yet reached the confluence, which is located at about river mile 157, in an effort to inform them of the flooding that has occurred in that area, Pribil said.

West-central Coconino County had been under a flash flood warning early Sunday. Supai police reported foot bridges and hiking trails were washed out and trees uprooted.

The threat of severe storms continued to plague central Coconino County Sunday afternoon, meteorologists said.

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