Floods kill at least 16 in polygamous town, national park

[niyad]

Floods kill at least 16 in polygamous town, national park

HILDALE, Utah (AP) — Rescuers trudged through muddy streambeds Tuesday in a small polygamous town on the Utah-Arizona border and found the bodies of several children who died when their two vehicles were swept away in a torrent of floodwaters that killed at least 12 people. The same flash floods claimed at least four lives in nearby Zion National Park.
People look on as crews clear mud and debris from a road following a flash flood Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2015, in Colorado City, Ariz. Officials say the bodies of two people killed in flash flooding in southern Utah were recovered in Arizona about two and a half miles downstream, while the bodies of six others were recovered in Utah.




The van and SUV were filled with three women and 13 children when a wall of brown water overtook them Monday evening, carrying the vehicles several hundred yards downstream and sending them plunging down a flooded-out embankment with terrifying force. The SUV was smashed beyond recognition. Three people survived, all of them children, in the secluded community that is the home base of Warren Jeffs' polygamous sect.

A witness described rushing to where the vehicles came to a stop and seeing a gruesome scene of body parts, twisted metal and a young boy who survived the flood. "The little boy was standing there," Yvonne Holm said. "He said, 'Are you guys going to help me?'"

Only one person was still missing Tuesday in the border town, and authorities had not identified the dead. The children in the vehicles ranged from 4 years old to teenagers. At nearby Zion National Park, authorities found four bodies and searched for three missing hikers who set out Monday to rappel down a narrow slot canyon. They left before park officials closed the canyons that evening because of flood warnings, park spokeswoman Holly Baker said. The hikers, from California and Nevada, were all in their 40s and 50s, Baker said. She had no details on their identities.

. . . . .

http://www.mail.com/news/politics/3819658-floods-kill-16-polygamous-town-national-park.html#.23140-stage-hero1-1

[valerief]

1. OMG, people really dress like that??? Sorry, I know it's a sad story, but the clothing is so

distracting in its plainness.

[MissB]

4. Caught my eyes too.

Truly a sad loss of life.

And it appears to be the same pattern of dress, just with varying sizes of front panels for the skirt.

[abbeyco]

2. Would the floods avoided them if they weren't polygamous?

I'm honestly sure that their lifestyle would have any effect on what happened. Is the headline just a tag to add more judgement to an already dire and tragic situation? Fucking pathetic, if you ask me - kids died and that's not cool on any level.

[niyad]

7. if you read the article, you would have seen that some of this happened in

the warren jeffs compound. nobody said it had anything to do with a lifestyle, simply that that is where it happened.

[bettyellen]

8. It is a very insular and well know community in the state. Books, movies and TV Shows have been

been made about the goings on in the community, so it only makes sense they would identify it as THAT Hildale.

[ryan_cats]

9. How insensitive of you

How insensitive of you to dare to draw a conclusion from what is merely a data point in the story and in no way reflects any joy over having Schadenfreude and judgment over someone else's valid lifestyle choices. Are we savages now? Do you not see how including the fact that they are polygamous adds to the overall story.

I'm wondering what sins the people in LA committed to earn their floods?

[TwilightGardener]

3. That's terrible. Poor people barely had a chance to figure out what hit them.

[TeeYiYi]

5. It's been a devastating day of loss in Utah...

...where three women and ten children lost their lives in Hildale, Utah; and seven people (four men and three women) lost their lives in Zion National Park. A minimum of twenty deaths, and possibly more, to terrifying flash flooding in slot canyons...

The insensitivity in this thread is disappointing.

TYY

[niyad]

6. I was appalled when I saw the number of casualties. and there is almost no warning, no

way to get out of danger. I am reminded of the big thompson flood in '76. must have been very much the same for all involved.