2 More Found Dead in Flood Aftermath

Searchers at a huge field of floating debris “like a big mess of moss” found the bodies of two more victims Thursday from an 11-foot-high flash flood that swept away 12 hikers in a narrow canyon.

The body of a woman was found Wednesday; hiking guide Poncho Quintana is the only known survivor of the Tuesday disaster. The rest are believed to be dead.

The debris was too slippery to walk on, so searchers laid plywood sheets on the flotsam to reach the first of the bodies that was spotted Thursday.

The nude and badly bruised body of a man was recovered about four hours after a hand was first spotted protruding from the debris, which was washed into a Lake Powell inlet at the mouth of Antelope Canyon. There were no immediate details on the second body, which was found later.

Coconino County Sheriff Joe Richards said much of the time Thursday was spent trying to figure out how searchers could reach the entangled body without disturbing the rest of the debris and possibly making other bodies harder to find.

The debris field, a solid-looking mass of sagebrush, mud, tree limbs and other material, extended 50 to 60 yards back into the canyon, ending where pools of water were left from the flood. The debris filled the canyon’s mouth, at that point 10 to 15 feet wide between soaring walls of rock.

“It sort of looks like a big mess of moss,” Richards said.

Scuba divers and two mini-subs were brought to the scene, but officials decided Thursday that it was too dangerous to use them.

A houseboat anchored in Lake Powell, which is 100 feet deep at the canyon mouth, served as a command post for the search.

The first body found Thursday was taken by boat to the National Park Service marina and then to a Page mortuary.

The bodies of those still missing most likely are in the muck at the canyon bottom or washed into the lake, four miles downstream.

Crews Thursday picked through debris with poles and grappling hooks. Dogs trained to sniff out bodies were brought in, and people on foot and in helicopters searched upstream.

Quintana returned to Los Angeles, where he lives, according to officials, who said he wouldn’t speak to reporters.

Two French girls whose parents were among the missing were placed in state custody after they told a hotel clerk their parents failed to return from a hike.

The flood resulted from a storm 15 miles southeast of Page, on a plateau 2,000 feet higher than the canyon. It created a 11-foot wall of water in the canyon, which is part of the Navajo Nation.

“It’s just like being caught in a washing machine,” said Lt. Greg Adair of the Navajo Nation Police. “There’s nothing you can do.”