13-year-old dies after flood sweeps away 2 teens visiting waterfall, Arizona cops say
Two teens were swept away in a flash flood near an Arizona waterfall but only one survived, police said.
Around 7:45 p.m. Thursday, the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office started receiving calls about two boys who got caught up in a flash flood while visiting a waterfall near Camino Josefina at the north end of Rio Rico, which is about an hour from Tuscon, the sheriff’s office told McClatchy News in a phone interview.
The waterfall is a popular spot, especially in the summer, according to the sheriff’s office.
The 17-year-old who was swept away by the flooding managed to climb out but was then stranded on the dirt of an inaccessible portion of the wash, the sheriff’s office said.
The sheriff’s office reached out to the U.S. Air Force in Tuscon, which sent a helicopter with night vision and a hoist to rescue the stranded teen.
The crew used the aircraft’s night vision to locate 13-year-old Samuel Gonzalez’s body downstream after midnight, according to the sheriff’s office.
“Flash floods can appear quickly even if there’s no local rain,” Santa Cruz County Sheriff David Hathaway told McClatchy. “You can have rain in the mountains and be surprised by a flash flood.”
Thunder, lightning and rain hit the Santa Cruz County area Thursday night, according to Nogales International. “That precipitation apparently led to the floodwaters that struck shortly before 8 p.m.,” the news site reported.
This story was originally published July 30, 2021 at 6:21 PM with the headline "13-year-old dies after flood sweeps away 2 teens visiting waterfall, Arizona cops say."