Grand Canyon flooding prompts over 100 evacuations from hotels and homes near South Rim

Chantal Da Silva
Updated ·2 min read
7

More than 100 people were evacuated from hotels and residences near the Grand Canyon's South Rim in Arizona on Tuesday, while others were told to shelter in place because of flooding caused by heavy rain, authorities said.

Deputies were sent to the town of Tusayan in Coconino County, south of the southern entrance to the Grand Canyon, for reports of flooding due to heavy rain in the area at around 4 p.m. local time (7 p.m. ET) Tuesday, the Coconino County Sheriff’s Office said on Facebook.

Over 100 residents and hotel guests were "displaced" and relocated to wait out the flooding, and around 70 students from the Grand Canyon Unified School District also had to take shelter on school property, but they were later being "returned home," the sheriff’s office said.

No injuries were reported.

U.S. Highway 64 was also closed as water reached 3 feet deep. It has since reopened.

The town of Tusayan touts itself as the "door to the Grand Canyon" on its website and says the community's history dates almost to the beginning of Grand Canyon National Park in 1919.

Water and debris along flooded Highway 64 in Tusayan, Ariz., on Tuesday. (Grand Canyon National Park / Facebook)
Water and debris along flooded Highway 64 in Tusayan, Ariz., on Tuesday. (Grand Canyon National Park / Facebook)

Coconino County said in a statement on X, formally known as Twitter, that “a significant rainfall event” had affected the Coconino Wash, a waterway east of Tusayan.

“Emergency notifications advising people in the flood-impacted areas to shelter in place until waters recede have been deployed through the County’s RAVE Emergency Notifications System,” it said.

Noting the closure of Highway 64, the Grand Canyon National Park Service urged visitors to “avoid all travel to and from Tusayan until further notice” and said travel to and from the South Rim of the Grand Canyon was not recommended.

In an update announcing the reopening of the highway at around 9:30 p.m., it said that road closures had lifted but that power outages continued in Tusayan as crews worked to clear damaged areas.

The National Weather Service in Flagstaff extended an areal flood advisory until 10 a.m. local time Wednesday in Tusayan, the Grand Canyon's South Rim and other areas "due to continued flooding caused by excessive rainfall earlier on Tuesday."

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com