WORLD
Utah flash flood: death toll rises as more victims found in Zion national park
Baku, September 17, AZERTAC
Authorities have confirmed at least 15 people died in flash flooding that swept away two vehicles in a town on the Utah-Arizona border and surged through a nearby national park, according to The Guardian.
The toll increased on Tuesday night with the discovery that three people had been killed in Utah's Zion national park when they were caught up in floodwaters rushing through its canyons. Another four were missing. Their vehicle was found at a trailhead on Monday evening in the Keyhole Canyon area and a search was undertaken on Tuesday morning.
Zion national park is less than 20 miles (32km) north of the small city of Hildale, on the Utah-Arizona border, where 12 people were killed by flash floods on Monday.
Sergeant Brock Bentley of the Washington County sheriff's office in Utah said one person remained missing after the flooding in Hildale, while three children survived.
The wall of water washed the vehicles several hundred yards downstream on Monday afternoon. Authorities said the victims were as young as four. It was unclear if they were all from the same family.
The floods came after heavy rains fell in the canyons just north of the sister towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Arizona, sending waves of water barreling through the streets. The community is known as the home base for Warren Jeffs' polygamous sect.