The bodies of a Texas chiropractor and a lifelong martial artist have been recovered following a devastating flash flood that swept through the Grand Canyon.

Officials reported on Monday that one individual remains unaccounted for, after approximately 80 others were rescued over the weekend.

Saturday’s flash flood inflicted severe damage on the sole water pipeline supplying Grand Canyon National Park.

Officials prohibited tourists from lodging within the park’s hotels and inns, while imposing urgent water-use restrictions on its year-round inhabitants.

Torrential downpours battered the Bright Angel Creek area of this destination, which draws 4.4 million visitors annually.

Grand Canyon Deputy Superintendent Brian Drapeaux indicated that officials have yet to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the damage, though the park has reported that approximately 40% of the pipeline has sustained damage.

Incident Commander Dave Black reported that search teams deployed night-vision optics and supplementary equipment to locate individuals requiring assistance amid the torrential downpour.

By nightfall on Saturday, 45 people had been extracted, with an additional 37 evacuated the following day.

Rangers consulted the park's permit system and scrutinized vehicle license plates to ascertain the number of missing individuals.

At this point, they have no reason to believe, based on the tips we've reviewed so far, that anyone other than the one missing person is involved, Black said during a news conference Monday evening.

The flood occurred deep within the canyon along Bright Angel Creek, which empties into the Colorado River near Phantom Ranch.

This locale comprises a cluster of historic dormitories, a canteen, and a campground that serves as a favored waypoint for river rafters and trekkers traversing from one rim of the Grand Canyon to the other.

Numerous visitors required helicopter evacuation, describing a torrential downpour and rangers' warnings of rockfalls, while they watched huge piles of logs and debris roll down the river as they stood nearby waiting to be rescued.

Hiker Daniel Evans recounted that it had rained on several occasions prior to the most severe 30-minute downpour on Saturday afternoon.

He had intended to take respite throughout the scorching day and spend the night in the vicinity of the severely affected Bright Angel Campground area.

Earlier, rangers had assured him that the area appeared safe.

Yet as the downpour intensified, they insisted it was time to leave.

He was reminded of Nepal and the devastating floods and landslides that had cascaded through mountain valleys the previous week.

"Throughout the entire downpour — throughout the whole ordeal of packing and preparing — I kept my gaze fixed upstream, fervently hoping that a surge of water wouldn't come rushing toward us," Evans said.

The families of chiropractor John Giusti and 42-year-old martial arts studio owner Brent Rosenkranz have identified them as the two people whose bodies were recovered, according to Hannah Barricks, a liaison for the families.

This photo, provided by Hannah Barricks, shows Brent Rosenkranz during an August 2026 trip to Grand Canyon National Park in northern Arizona, where his body was recovered after flash flooding.

(Rosenkranz family via family liaison Hannah Barricks via AP)

This photo, provided by Hannah Barricks, shows Timothy Smith, who his family says has been missing since a trip to the Grand Canyon in August 2026, during an earlier family visit to Zion National Park in Utah in July 2026.

(Smith family, via family liaison Hannah Barricks via AP)

This undated photograph, provided by Hannah Barricks, shows John Giusti during an August 2026 trip to Grand Canyon National Park in northern Arizona, where his body was recovered after flash flooding.

(Giusti family, via family liaison Hannah Barricks via AP)

A third companion — Timothy Smith, a 53-year-old pilot from Wyoming — accompanied them on the excursion and remained unaccounted for, Barricks reported via text message late Monday.

The men spoke with their families on Thursday and located their campsite at the bottom of the Grand Canyon on Friday.

They have not been heard from since, the three families stated in a joint statement released earlier Monday through Barricks.

All three men shared ties to Granbury, Texas, and their families reported that they had intended to spend “several days of hiking, camping, fishing and exploring together.”

Park officials reported that they recovered the body of a 46-year-old man on Sunday evening near Crystal Rapids along the Colorado River and subsequently located a second body, though they declined to furnish further details.

Venturing to the Grand Canyon during the summer months poses a considerable hazard, primarily owing to the imminent threat of flash floods that typically accompany the monsoon, or rainy season.

Even ostensibly clear skies can rapidly deteriorate into violent thunderstorms and torrential downpours.

Rain also fell on part of the Dragon Bravo Fire scar, a burn area left by a lightning-caused wildfire in July 2025.

It burned for days before exploding into a fast-moving conflagration that forced evacuations and consumed the historic Grand Canyon Lodge, some cabins and other structures on the North Rim.

Without vegetation, a barren burn scar allows runoff to flow more quickly.

The steep, rocky terrain of the canyon itself channels water with remarkable efficiency.

What might constitute an ordinary summer downpour elsewhere can rapidly transform into a formidable surge of water within the canyon's confines.

This year's monsoon is proving especially intense, driven by higher levels of atmospheric water vapor, largely due to a strong El Niño, according to A. Park Williams, a hydroclimatologist at the University of California, Los Angeles.

The natural warming of parts of the Pacific Ocean can distort weather patterns on a global scale.

That additional water vapor in the southwestern United States is precipitated out of the storm as rainfall, he explained.

The link between human-induced climate change and the torrential rainfall in Arizona is remarkably robust, according to climate scientist Daniel Swain of the California Institute for Water Resources.

Several months ago, Swain and colleagues published a study in the journal *Weather and Climate Extremes* demonstrating that, during the summer, short-lived intense downpours in the West — comparable to the one that struck the Grand Canyon — have intensified by 10% since 2000.

The flood dealt a severe setback to the long-standing initiative to upgrade the water pipeline supplying both tourists and the approximately 1,600 residents of Grand Canyon Village.

A $208 million rehabilitation of the pipeline and upgrades to the associated water delivery system started in 2023, with the park service calling it a crucial investment to ensure the park can meet the needs of residents and visitors.

The project was expected to be completed next year, though that timeline is now unclear.

Although the Grand Canyon’s South Rim is equipped with substantial reservoirs of potable water, these will remain unreplenished, as the pipeline supplying them is currently out of operation.

Stengle reported from Dallas.

Contributions were also made by Hannah Schoenbaum in Salt Lake City; Seth Borenstein in Kensington, Maryland; Mikella Schuettler in Phoenix; Julie Walker in New York City; Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina; Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire; and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles.