Flash Floods Force Hundreds to Flee Indian Reservation

Torrential rains caused flash flooding in a canyon on an Indian reservation Sunday, forcing helicopters to begin airlifting hundreds of tourists and residents to safety.

About 350 to 400 tourists were vacationing in Cataract Canyon on the Havasupai Indian Reservation, just southwest of the Grand Canyon, when 3 to 4 inches of rain soaked the campground within 2 1/2 hours Sunday morning, authorities said. Most were camping and attending the reservation’s annual Peach Festival.

About a dozen homes were flooded with a foot or two of water, said Bob McNichols, a Bureau of Indian Affairs superintendent. About 100 of the 600 or so tribal members who live in the canyon were expected to be evacuated, as the flooding knocked out both water and sewer utilities.

Six National Guard, law-enforcement and tribe-chartered helicopters were flying visitors and residents out of the canyon. The airlifts ended at dusk and were to resume this morning.

The stranded campers and Indians were being taken to Peach Springs on the nearby Hualapai reservation, where a shelter was being set up in a school gymnasium. Red Cross workers assisting victims of the Amtrak train derailment in Kingman were heading to Peach Springs to help, McNichols said.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” McNichols said. “We’re getting a handle on this as we speak.”

This is the third time this decade that the area has seen major floods, with the others occurring in 1990 and 1993.