Meteorologists had issued a flash-flood warning surrounding a popular swimming area inside the Tonto National Forest before the wave of water gushed through the narrow canyon on Saturday afternoon.
A woman who was hiking to the swimming hole said she saw people clinging to trees after the water rushed down a normally calm creek near the trail.
Video that Disa Alexander shot shortly after the flood showed a man in a tree holding his baby as water rushed around him. His wife was a short ways away from him, also clinging to a tree.
There was no warning before the wall of water hit, Alexander said.
The deaths include at least one child. Four people rescued by helicopter Saturday were taken to the hospital for hypothermia.
"It's pretty much recovery (now). We don't believe there's anybody left out there," Water Wheel Fire and Medical District Fire Chief Ron Sattelmaier said
The weather service estimates that up to 1.5 inch of rain fell over the area over an hour, and that the drainage took at least 30 minutes to reach the swimming hole. The thunderstorm hit about 8 miles upstream along Ellison Creek, which quickly flooded the narrow canyon where the swimmers were enjoying a cool dip a on a hot summer day, with highs in the 80s.
"They had no warning. They heard a roar, and it was on top of them," Sattelmaier said.
There had been thunderstorms throughout the area near Payson, about an hour and half's drive from Phoenix, but it wasn't raining where the swimmers were at the time. But it happened during monsoon season, when weather like this can strike furiously. Monsoon thunderstorms are a common, nearly daily occurrence in Arizona thanks to the mix of heat and moisture in the summer months.
"I wish there was a way from keeping people from getting in there during monsoon season. It happens every year. We've just been lucky something like this hasn't been this tragic," Sattelmaier said.
The flooding came after a severe thunderstorm pounded down on a nearby remote area that had been burned by a recent wildfire, Sattelmaier said.
The prospect of brewing monsoon thunderstorms and the deep burn scar over the ground that had charred away the pine trees, foliage and ground dust that would normally absorb rain were such a concern that the National Weather Service issued a flash-flood warning about an hour and a half before emergency crews were called to the scene.
"If it's an intense burn, it creates a glaze on the surface that just repels water," said Darren McCollum, a meteorologist. "We had some concerns. We got a lot worse news."
=============
Maria Raya's 26th birthday was Sunday. Phoenix in July was searing hot.
So Maria and her family headed to Arizona's high country for what should have been a peaceful weekend splashing in a cool mountain stream.
Instead, their trip turned deadly when a "40-foot-wide black wave" of rainwater, mud and debris tore through a narrow canyon and swept the family away on Saturday.
The water took Maria, the day before her birthday. It took her three children ages 3, 5 and 7, most likely her husband, as well, and five other family members, relatives said.
It led other relatives to clamber along the creek through knee-deep water, in the dark, shouting their names, until they made a terrible discovery: one child's body in the debris.
By Sunday, nine had been confirmed dead. Maria Raya's husband, Hector Miguel Garnica, 27, was still missing.
Officials had not released the names of the dead, but family members, who drove to Payson to help search, told The Arizona Republic that 14 family members were at the swimming hole when the flood struck around 3 p.m. Saturday.
The victims included:
- Maria Raya, who would have turned 26 on Sunday, and her children Emily, 3, and Mia, 5, and Hector Daniel, 7.
- Maria's sister Maribel Raya, 24, her daughter Erika Raya, 2, and Maribel's brother Javier Raya, 14.
- Selia Garcia, 60, the mother of Maria, Maribel and Javier.
- Jonathan Leon, 13, Celia Garcia's grandson.
All were from Phoenix.
Four other family members, a married couple and their two children, were treated at a local hospital for hypothermia and were released.
=================================
