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Chain-saw crews, dive teams continue search for missing flash-flood victim near Payson

Perry Vandell
The Republic | azcentral.com
Search teams using dogs and a drone scour a 2½-mile area along Ellison Creek on July 18, 2017, northeast of Payson, in hopes of finding a missing man whose extended family was trapped in a flash flood at a swimming hole. The bodies of nine family members were recovered Saturday and Sunday, but Hector Miguel Garnica, 27, remains missing.

PAYSON — A fun swimming hole and beautiful hiking destination for tourists and locals is now the site of a desperate, water-logged search.

An expanded search team using divers, chain saws and a drone scouted a 2½-mile area along Ellison Creek on Tuesday in hopes of finding a missing man whose extended family was trapped in a flash flood at the Cold Springs swimming hole in the forest north of Payson.

Nine bodies already have been recovered.

Map of search area in the Water Wheel Recreation Area on July 17, 2017.

Rescuers in bright orange and yellow jackets and helmets trudged through creeks in mud-caked boots. Some hacked at branches and brush with shovels and pronged weeding hoes. Others climbed up the embankments with a K-9, altering course as voices crackled out of their walkie-talkies.

Larger groups pulled fallen logs from their resting places, letting them fall over when the effort only revealed an empty patch of dirt.

The search was born from catastrophe.

On Saturday afternoon, as more than 100 people enjoyed cooling off on a hot summer day at the swimming hole, a thunderstorm began to pour rain nearby. That water raced downstream and built into a wall of water.

Someone nearby called 911, urging the operator to send fire crews as a man caught in the water clung to a branch. The caller's voice grew agitated as he described another man entering the rushing water to help.

"We're screaming at these idiots to stay out of (the water), but one guy wants to try to help his buddy, and he's going to get himself drowned, too," the caller said in a recording released Tuesday by the Gila County Sheriff's Office. "I mean, it's a serious flood."

The bodies of nine family members were recovered Saturday and Sunday, but Hector Miguel Garnica, 27, remained missing.

The search for Garnica was suspended about noon Tuesday because of storms in the area. Teams were prepared to resume when the weather cleared, most likely on Wednesday morning.

In an afternoon update, Tiffany Davila, spokeswoman for the Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management, said the team now saw the effort as a body-retrieval search, not a rescue mission.

No new leads had emerged, Davila said.

A 16-person state Type 3 Incident Management Team with professionals from fire, medical and law enforcement is spearheading the search under the direction of Pruett Small, a hazard-response leader at the state Forestry Department.

The team took over the search at 6 p.m. Monday at Gila County Sheriff Adam Shepard's request. The sheriff sought additional resources from the state as the rescue effort entered its fourth day.

Small said the search team of about 75 members selected by the Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management would cover the area. The group was split into three divisions.

Davila said the search could last four to five days. If it was unsuccessful, the search area could be expanded, she said.

MORE:  How many have died in Arizona flash floods?

Operations Section Chief Cougan Carothers of the Central Arizona Fire and Medical Authority said most of the search effort was focused upstream near the Water Wheel turnoff, where K-9 units have alerted teams to some deep pools of water and debris piles.

Carothers said dive teams would search underwater while firefighters cut through the larger debris piles with chain saws. Volunteer search-and-rescue groups from surrounding counties also were assisting.

Though most of the search effort was focused upstream, Carothers said a volunteer with a drone would scan the lower area.

He also stressed the need to protect searchers from harm. Teams set up “repeaters” throughout the area to boost radio signals to improve radio quality.

Lookouts whose sole job was to monitor weather and water levels and someone from the National Weather Service was updating the team every half-hour.

READ:  9 dead in Payson flash flood, 1 still missing

Killed in Saturday's flood were:

  • Maria Raya-Garcia, 27, and her children:
  • Emily Garnica, 3.
  • Mia Garnica, 5.
  • Daniel Garnica, 7.
  • Maribel Raya-Garcia, 24, Maria Raya's sister, along with her daughter:
  • Erica Raya-Garcia, 2.
  • Javier Raya-Garcia, 19, brother of Maria and Maribel.
  • Selia Garcia Castenada, 57, the mother of Maria, Maribel and Javier.
  • Jonathan Leon, 13, Selia Garcia's grandson.

Hector Miguel Garnica was Maria Raya-Garcia's husband.

A GoFundMe page set up by a friend of Hector Miguel Garnica raised $56,821 for burial expenses. The campaign no longer was accepting donations as of Tuesday morning.