Apparently a dam broke after several days of heavy rain. A group of 16 boaters were stranded on the Colorado after their rafts were swept away at the Havasu Crk - Colorado River confluence.
Two years ago I was at the Havasu Crk junction during a short but severe thunder storm. We had to abort the hike into that beautiful canyon. The thought of having the rafts flushed down stream hadn't crossed my mind! The waterfalls off the canyon walls were awesome to watch - from a distance.
I'm hoping the village didn't suffer much damage and everyone was evacuated safely. So far no injury reports.
I've fled downcanyon to take rafts and get the heck out a couple times. Even without dams breaking, that canyon's been pretty flashy in the last ten years. It's a big drainage. The lower canyon was changed dramatically by a big flood in the early '90s, which took out most of the big trees and travertine dams below Mooney. It's still pretty sad to remember how it was (though it remains wonderful). Hikers from the river are often tempted to complacency during monsoon season, thinking, "It won't happen to me." Be careful out there, especially with this season's weather patterns.
Since there have not been any injuries or deaths, the saddest part of this is that the beautiful blue/green water in Havasupai will be brown for several years now which is one of the reasons people go. They say that the tourism industry for those people will be zilch for quite a while now.
Posted by Adam Schallau on August 18, 2008 at 4:19 PM
Did anyone else find it strange that the September 2008 issue of Outdoor Photographer has an image of Havasu Falls on the cover? I found it interesting that they wrote about the changes to the falls from the flood in the 90s and the dam that was built to preserve the mineral pools.
I'm glad to hear that no one has been injured or killed in the flooding.
Posted by Bill Pelzmann on August 18, 2008 at 6:23 PM
Adam, is the dam referred to in the article the one that broke ?
A recent update reported 14 people still unaccounted for.
It would be amazing that no one was seriously injured by this flood!
Posted by Adam Schallau on August 18, 2008 at 7:26 PM
Bill, the article only mentioned a small dam built upstream in the 1990s. I have no idea if the dam referred to in the article is the one that broke. Are the multiple dams in that drainage?
Discussion
5 replieshttp://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080817/ap_on_re_us/grand_canyon_flooding
Apparently a dam broke after several days of heavy rain. A group of 16 boaters were stranded on the Colorado after their rafts were swept away at the Havasu Crk - Colorado River confluence.
Two years ago I was at the Havasu Crk junction during a short but severe thunder storm. We had to abort the hike into that beautiful canyon. The thought of having the rafts flushed down stream hadn't crossed my mind! The waterfalls off the canyon walls were awesome to watch - from a distance.
I'm hoping the village didn't suffer much damage and everyone was evacuated safely. So far no injury reports.
I'm glad to hear that no one has been injured or killed in the flooding.
A recent update reported 14 people still unaccounted for.
It would be amazing that no one was seriously injured by this flood!