Eight people died and five others are missing after a flash
flood washed away vehicles at the Utah-Arizona border, the Hildale, Utah, fire
department said.
All the victims
are mothers and small children, Assistant Fire Chief Kevin Barlow said. The
youngest child was about 4 years old.
The flooding
ravaged a community that straddles the border from Hildale, Utah, to Colorado
City, Arizona.
Most of the
people who live in the community are members of the Warren Jeffs polygamist
sect known as the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints (FLDS).
The flash flood started with heavy rains Monday evening in the
canyons above Hildale, Barlow said. The rush of water was so intense it washed
two vehicles several hundred yards downstream.
The two vehicles
were carrying 16 people, Barlow said.
"Most of
the people were thrown from the vehicles," Barlow said.
Witness Chris
Wyler said rain and hail walloped Hildale within minutes -- then quickly
subsided.
"It
happened within like a half-hour, 45 minutes," he said. "(Then) it
was just gone. And then the sun was shining again."
By late Monday
night, he said, the water had mostly receded. Nearby residents were trying to
organize volunteers on social media to help search for those missing.
A flash flood
warning remained in effect for Short Creek, Hildale and the surrounding region
of southeast Washington County, Utah, until noon (2 p.m. ET), the National
Weather Service said.
Additional
thunderstorms are expected in the area Tuesday afternoon, the service added.
Utah Gov. Gary
R. Herbert said the state is offering "its full resources to the town of
Hildale to aid with the search and rescue effort."
"I am
heartbroken to hear of the recent tragedy in Washington County," the
governor said.
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