Officials mull more Grand Canyon evacuations
(CNN) — Authorities will decide Monday whether a few hundred people in the area of the Grand Canyon still need to be evacuated, an official said.
Water and mud wash down into a canyon Sunday after heavy rain in the Grand Canyon area.
Authorities halted the evacuation Sunday night of those initially thought to be in danger after rain breached an earthen dam at the Grand Canyon, said Gerry Blair, spokesman levitra for the Coconino County Sheriff’s Office.
A decision about whether crews will evacuate them is expected Monday, Blair said.
The group awaiting word on evacuations were on high ground and did not appear to be in immediate danger by Sunday night, the spokesman said.
Rescue crews in helicopters evacuated about 170 others Sunday after water poured through Redland Dam, sending water down two canyons and threatening several hundred tourists and residents, Blair said.
Officials also plan to resume the search Monday for "less than 20" people who were in the affected area and whose whereabouts are not yet known to authorities, Blair said.
The air evacuations were called off due to darkness at 8:30 p.m. Sunday (11:30 p.m. ET).
Most of the 170 people evacuated Sunday were campers, tourists and paddlers, he said.
Watch the evacuation of tourists, residents »
A few hundred others — perhaps as many as 400 — remained in the area of concern. Most are permanent residents of Supai village, located within the Havasupai Indian Reservation at the bottom of the Grand Canyon.
They were on relatively high ground and were not in immediate danger Sunday night, he said, but sheriff’s deputies, U.S. marshals and officers with the Bureau of Indian Affairs police force were taken by helicopter to the village. They plan to stay at least until Monday.
The problems started when water breached Redland Dam and poured into Cataract Canyon and Supai Canyon, which was heavily flooded, said Blair.
Rescuers used five helicopters — three of them Black Hawks — in the rescue mission. Evacuees were taken to a Red Cross shelter at Hualapai Tribal Gymnasium in Peach Springs.
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Blair said visitors who hike down into stromectol online the canyon are required to register with authorities. Authorities have accounted for most people in the area.
Earlier, a private boating party of 16 people was stranded, but uninjured, on a ledge at the confluence of Havasu Creek and the Colorado River on Saturday night after floodwaters carried their five rafts away, authorities said.
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