PHOENIX – More than 250 residents and tourists have been evacuated from an American Indian village in a remote, scenic offshoot of the Grand Canyon after weekend flooding that wrecked trails and nearly washed away some river rafters in the rugged gorge.
Yesterday, helicopters ferried 85 people out of the Havasupai tribal village of Supai, about 2,300 feet below the canyon rim, said Gerry Blair, a spokesman for the Coconino County Sheriff's Department. Another 170 people had been evacuated from Supai Canyon on Sunday.
Village residents asked for extra supplies yesterday, but Blair said it wasn't clear how much Supai will need because many people are choosing to leave the village, and authorities don't know how long it will take to reopen hiking trails to the public.
“There's nobody down there in dire straits because they don't have any food or water right now,” he said.
Supai, a year-round home to about 400 tribe members, is extremely remote. It's an 8-mile hike from the nearest parking lot, dropping down a winding canyon trail.
It's the only U.S. community where the mail is delivered by mule. The area is popular with hikers for its towering blue-green waterfalls downstream from the village.
Gov. Janet Napolitano toured the flood damage and met with Havasupai leaders yesterday. She said afterward that crews must restore the pack trail used to deliver mail, food and other supplies. Part of the trail is still underwater, she said.
Havasupai Vice Chairman Matthew Putesoi declined to comment until the tribe checks the extent of the damage to the village.
Thunderstorms dumped 3 to 6 inches of rain Friday and Saturday in northern Arizona and about 2 inches more Sunday. In Supai Canyon, the deluge was made worse by the breach of a small earthen dam upstream used to provide water for livestock.
The dam isn't a “huge, significant” structure, and its rupture was only one factor in the flooding, Blair said.
Another round of showers added almost an inch of rain yesterday morning, and slow-moving storms were expected to sweep over the canyon later in the night, the National Weather Service said.
Some visitors were stranded over the weekend as rushing water swept away rafts, backpacks, food and other supplies.
“It was definitely frightening, and there was a lot of, 'Whoa, what are we going to do next and what's the morning going to bring?' ” said Mimi Mills, 42, of the Northern California town of Nevada City, who was stranded with 15 other river runners Saturday afternoon after a flash flood washed away their rafts.
Mills said the group took shelter overnight under an overhang but had to scramble up a cliff when another flash flood occurred in the middle of the night.
“I woke up to people yelling, 'We've got to get out of here!' ” she said. “We booked it up a cliff in 10 seconds, and we just saw this massive rush of water rage down the creek side.”
Mills was among about 35 evacuees who spent Sunday night at a makeshift shelter at a gymnasium in nearby Peach Springs, Tracey Kiest, a spokeswoman for the American Red Cross, said yesterday. Peach Springs is about 65 miles southwest of Supai.
The Havasupai tribe is one of the smaller Indian communities in Arizona with about 679 members, according to Bureau of Indian Affairs estimates from 2003, the latest statistics available.
