Woman's body found after flash flood near Grand Canyon

[August 26, 2024]  (Reuters) - The body of a woman who had been missing for three days was discovered on Sunday after she had been swept up in a flash flood near the Grand Canyon in Arizona that required the rescue of more than 100 people, officials said.   

The body of Chenoa Nickerson, 33, was discovered by a commercial river trip on the Colorado River about 20 miles (30 km) downstream of where she went missing on Thursday, the U.S. National Park Service said in a statement.

Nickerson, from the Phoenix suburb of Gilbert, was swept into Havasu Creek without a life jacket, the park service said.

Havasu Creek is a tributary of the Colorado River that joins the larger waterway just before it enters Arizona's Grand Canyon National Park.

The aerial, ground and rescue vehicle search was concentrated on the confluence of Havasu Creek and the Colorado River, the park service said.

The creek also runs through Havasupai tribal lands, where tribal leaders asked Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs for flood assistance, the governor's office said in a statement.

The state provided assets including a UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter for evacuation assistance and a National Guard deployment, the statement said.

The Arizona National Guard said on Saturday the Blackhawk helped evacuate 104 tourists and tribal members out of a canyon.

The Havasupai Tribal Council on Saturday announced it had closed its lands to tourists until further notice due to extensive flooding.

(Reporting by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Frank McGurty and Christian Schmollinger)

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