GRAND CANYON VILLAGE, AZ — Flash flooding in Grand Canyon National Park has left two people dead and one person missing after major weekend storms swept through parts of the canyon, officials said Monday. Nearly 80 others were rescued as crews searched by air and on the ground for people still unaccounted for.
Among the dead is Dr. John Giusti, a chiropractor from Granbury, Texas, whose family confirmed his death after a social media message said floodwaters overtook the area where he and his hiking group were camping. Authorities also recovered the body of a 46-year-old man near Crystal Rapids along the Colorado River while trying to locate a second body.
Search teams keep working after weekend flooding in the canyon
Park officials said most of the people believed missing on Monday had been recovered, but searchers continued looking for Texas martial arts studio owner Brent Rosenkranz, 42, and Wyoming pilot Timothy Smith, 53. Their families said the men had been traveling with Giusti and were planning several days of hiking, camping, fishing and exploring together.
The three men all had ties to Granbury, Texas. According to their families, they had set out Thursday on a trip they had long dreamed about and spoke with relatives that day before later finding their campsite on Friday. None had been heard from since, the families said in a joint statement.
Late Monday morning, more rain fell over the canyon as the Arizona Department of Emergency and Military Affairs coordinated with Grand Canyon National Park and county emergency management officials on search and recovery efforts.
Visitors were evacuated by helicopter from lodges and camping areas
The flooding struck deep in the canyon near the Colorado River, close to popular lodges and camping areas used by hikers traveling from one rim to the other. Scores of visitors had to be flown out by helicopter after rangers warned of rockslides and fast-moving water.
People who were rescued described a sudden surge of water carrying logs and debris downstream. Hiker Daniel Evans said rain had fallen several times before a heavy 30-minute downpour Saturday afternoon. He had planned to rest near the hard-hit Bright Angel campground area before rangers told him it was time to leave.
Evans said he kept watching the water upstream while packing, worried that a larger wall of water might come toward the group. Some evacuees also said they thought about recent floods and landslides they had seen in Nepal while waiting to get out.
Flood damage shut the canyon water pipeline and forced new restrictions
The weekend storm severely damaged the only water pipeline into the canyon, creating a major problem for the park’s water system. Officials barred tourists from staying at lodges and hotels inside Grand Canyon National Park and ordered emergency water restrictions for year-round residents.
The pipeline has been the focus of a long-running modernization project aimed at improving service for the roughly 1,600 residents of Grand Canyon Village and the many visitors who come through the park. The National Park Service began a $208 million rehabilitation and upgrade project in 2023, describing it as a critical investment.
That work was expected to be finished next year. Park officials said large storage tanks on the South Rim can hold potable water, but they will not be refilled while the pipeline is out of service.
Monsoon storms and burn scars can turn canyon rain into dangerous runoff
Officials said the danger comes partly from the Grand Canyon’s summer monsoon season, when clear skies can quickly give way to thunderstorms and heavy rain. Forecasters warned that more flooding was possible Monday and at other times when storms move through the area.
Rain also fell on part of the Dragon Bravo fire scar, a burned area left by a lightning-caused wildfire in July 2025. That fire burned for days before becoming a fast-moving blaze that forced evacuations and destroyed the historic Grand Canyon Lodge, several cabins and other structures.
Without vegetation to slow it down, runoff can move faster across a burn scar. The canyon’s steep, rocky terrain also funnels water quickly, turning what might be an ordinary summer storm elsewhere into a dangerous rush of water here.
Scientists link stronger downpours in the West to warming and El Niño
Weather experts said this year’s monsoon has been unusually intense because the atmosphere contains more water vapor, in part due to a strong El Niño. A. Park Williams, a hydroclimatologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, said warming in parts of the Pacific Ocean can alter weather patterns worldwide.
Daniel Swain of the California Institute for Water Resources said the connection between human-caused climate change and heavy Arizona rainfall is strong. He and colleagues recently published a study in Weather and Climate Extremes showing that short, intense summer downpours in the West have become 10% stronger since 2000.
That trend matters in places like the Grand Canyon, where steep walls, burn scars and narrow drainage paths can make brief storms much more dangerous than they appear at first.
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