Las Vegas Red Cross manager helps flood victims

By Mary Manning

Monday, Aug. 18, 2008 | 3:52 p.m.

A Las Vegas-based American Red Cross emergency services manager, Ryan Turner, has gone to help rescue workers dealing with tourists and Havasupai Tribe members trapped in a flash flood near the Grand Canyon.

Turner left Las Vegas late this morning, according to a spokeswoman. He is acting as a government liason between at least nine government agencies involved in the rescue.

About 50 tourists and Havasupai tribal members spent the night in a shelter Sunday after helicopters rescued them from floodwaters that roared through a gorge at the side of the Grand Canyon, the National Park Service said.

Some people who were believed to be in the side canyon were unaccounted for and search efforts continued today after the weekend flooding. No injuries have been reported.

A shelter has been set up in a gymnasium in Peach Springs by the American Red Cross.

The area of northwestern Arizona where the flooding occurred received three to six inches of rain Friday and Saturday, with an additional two inches on

Sunday, according to the National Weather Service.

Early today, another 0.80 of an inch fell in the area.

Rescue efforts strengthened after the Redlands Earthen Dam failed about 45 miles upstream from the tribal village of Supai, the park service said. About 400 Havasupai tribe members live in the village. Supai is about 75 miles west of Grand Canyon Village, a gateway to Grand Canyon National Park.