One man is dead and another is still missing after a slot canyon in southern Utah suddenly flooded Tuesday.
Kane County Sheriff’s Lt. Allen Alldredge said the two men were part of a group of three walking near the Utah-Arizona border.
He third man was rescued and was being treated for hypothermia and other injuries after days of exposure.
Three other groups of hikers, 11 people in total, needed to be rescued Tuesday due to flooding.
The sheriff’s office said the spouse of a hiker called Monday to report that they had not returned home from a hike they began last Friday. The three men were on a multi-day hike through Buckskin Gulch in Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, which has more than 20 miles of narrow canyon offering few exit points.
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Helicopter searchers located what appeared to be a camp.
“They were able to from the air … find some areas where it looked like camping gear, a backpack,” Alldredge said.
One man was pulled from the water with “severe health issues at the time, being cold and in the water for three days and struggling with it,” Alldredge said.
The searchers then found the body of the deceased man.
Officials said recent storms in the western United States raised water levels in the canyons. Levels rose further after additional flooding this week due to more rain and melting of the region’s snowpack as spring rages.
None of the hikers’ names were released, but the sheriff’s office said the dead hiker was from Tampa, Florida.
with cable news services