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Supai flood evacuees scramble to safety

In the middle of the night, Williams resident Joel Masson had to gather his gear and head to higher ground for safety during the Supai flood.

By LARRY HENDRICKS
Assistant City Editor
Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Saturday night, Williams resident Joel Masson bedded down with his group of seven people at a campground near Supai village.

By Sunday morning, he was scrambling to safety up a rock wall listening to the sounds of rushing water, thuds made by eroding walls, and crashes and cracks made by breaking trees. "It got pretty intense down there," Masson said.

View a slide show here

About 170 people had been evacuated as of Sunday evening. Rescue crews transported another 85 people out of the canyon Monday, according to Coconino County Sheriff's Office officials.

Masson said he went down to the falls for a couple of nights to relax and enjoy the scenery. He met a group of friends at the trailhead Friday morning to head down to Supai Village.

"It actually barely even rained down there," he said.

Friday, there was a light drizzle. Saturday saw a moderate rain, but not much to create severe flooding.

Masson said a local ranger told people enjoying Havasu Falls to get people out of the water because floodwaters were coming Saturday. He said the group sat there about a half an hour, and noticed the canyon off to the left was flowing with muddy water.

He was awakened at about 1 a.m. Sunday by people scurrying about with flashlights and headlamps.

"The river had risen quite substantially," Masson said.

He noticed some people were still sleeping, tents were still up. But campers on the other side of the river had pretty much become stranded.

Masson and his group moved to a location at about 3 a.m. that had a sign that indicated high ground.

"Then, a guy named Bernie from Sedona came through and was giving everybody a number to count off to make sure that he knew he counted everybody down there," Masson said.

As campers started going back to their tents and bedding down, a tribal ranger came by in a near panic.

"They were like 'Leave everything behind,' basically," Masson said.

But he didn't want to leave his emergency supplies in case he needed them. The group stayed together as everybody was told to go toward the cemetery.

At the cemetery, a tribal guide was telling people to get up even higher. Campers began scaling rocks to get to higher ground.

"The hard thing was, because it was still 4 in the morning, all you're hearing is the torrential running of the water, and it was just echoing off the walls," Masson said.

He heard trees breaking, loud thuds of eroding walls.

The worst part, for him, was that he could not see how large the river had become, or how big it was growing. He said he wasn't too panicky until he was told to get to even higher ground than the cemetery.

His group had previously filled up with water they had filtered before the major flooding began.

Masson said they stayed at the top for some time, but they noticed a larger group still down at the cemetery and moved back down because that would likely be the evacuation point.

Once he got to the cemetery, he was told to get back up the cliff and hike back to Supai Village. At daybreak, he took a tripod and his camera to get shots of the falls.

At the high-ground camp, the rushing water had risen to within a foot below the high ground sign. Water covered the entire valley, wall to wall at that point, for as far as he could see. Had water gone up another few feet, the high-ground area would have been under water as well.

The guides, going off previous experience, did a great job, Masson said.

Back at the village, everybody was being evacuated by helicopter. He called it a "hurry-up to wait process." There was the filling out of forms, writing down of names.

He added it was wonderful to see Search and Rescue helicopters snatching stranded people off the rocks.

He said he was airlifted out at about 3:30 p.m. Sunday, but some people in his group didn't get out until Monday. Everybody in his group was OK.

As for whether the experience affected how he thought of Havasupai and the falls, he said, "I'll be back. I'll wait 'til the pools reform, then go back down there."

Larry Hendricks can be reached at 556-2262 or lhendricks@azdailysun.com.

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