Grand Canyon flash floods kill Texas doctor, leave two friends missing

The Grand Canyon filled with water over a single weekend in late August, and in the chaos of that sudden deluge, a Texas doctor died and two of his friends vanished into terrain so remote that rescue workers could not reach them by road, by phone, or sometimes even by air.

Dr. John Giusti was 46, a chiropractor from Granbury, Texas, who left behind a wife and three daughters. His wife, Janet, described him in a statement as her whole world—to his community a gifted healer, to his friends a powerhouse of life. He had entered the Grand Canyon on Friday with two companions: Brent Rosenkranz, a martial arts instructor and school owner who had spent his life teaching and mentoring young people, and Timothy Allen Smith, a husband and father of three who loved the outdoors and helping others. The three men had planned a modest trip: two nights at Bright Angel Campground near the canyon floor, some fishing, a visit to Havasupai Gardens, then out. It was the kind of hike thousands of people undertake each year.

Then the rain came. In just two days, the Grand Canyon received nearly half a year's normal rainfall. Creeks swelled into torrents. Muddy debris clogged the rivers. On Monday, as rescue efforts continued, more heavy rain fell, grounding helicopters that had already pulled 61 people to safety over the weekend. Giusti was killed in the flooding. Rosenkranz and Smith disappeared. Their families issued a joint statement Monday asking for prayers and thanking search-and-rescue personnel, but offering no update on the two missing men.

The scale of the emergency became clear as the day wore on. Authorities initially reported about 15 people missing, though by Monday night that number had dropped to one—a figure that did not account for Rosenkranz and Smith, whose status remained unclear. Dozens of hikers had been forced to evacuate. Erica Viola, who was hiking with her boyfriend, remembered a ranger yelling at her to run. "I'm going, 'I can't run any faster. I'm going to just die,'" she told CBS News. "I knew if I didn't run, we weren't going to make it." Five minutes after they fled, the footbridge they had crossed was gone, swept away by the water. Nearly all footbridges spanning Bright Angel Creek were destroyed, the National Park Service said, eliminating pedestrian access across the creek and cutting off escape routes for anyone still in the canyon.

Vila and her boyfriend were airlifted out a few hours later. Others hiked out on foot, though they faced new dangers—falling rocks loosened by the deluge. Steve Kramer, who managed to hike to safety, described the impossible geometry of the canyon during a flood: "All the people down in the canyon there, there's just nowhere to go and nowhere out. No way out."

The search for Rosenkranz and Smith has been complicated by the remoteness of the terrain and the weather itself. There are no roads inside Grand Canyon National Park. Movement depends on foot, mule, or helicopter. The Arizona Department of Public Safety told CBS News that rescuers have struggled to make contact with the missing partly because of the lack of cellphone coverage in the canyon and partly because many of those unaccounted for are believed to be foreign tourists whose families may not know exactly where they are or be able to reach authorities. The rain that caused the disaster continues to hamper the search for survivors. On Monday, it kept helicopters grounded all day.

The families of all three men released a statement asking the community to continue praying for Rosenkranz and Smith, for the search teams working to find them, and for all the families touched by the flooding. What began as a weekend hike had become a tragedy with no clear resolution, unfolding in a place where the only way out is the way you came in—and sometimes, when the water rises, there is no way at all.