Satellite alerts warn Grand Canyon hikers

Rescue crews are still searching for a missing hiker after flash floods turned popular trails into fatal traps. Two hikers are dead, but emergency teams managed to rescue about 80 people from the canyon over the weekend, but one again still missing. Megan Specter joins us now. Megan officials are pointing to one key defensive measure that they believe prevented an even bigger tragedy. Yeah, it's all about early warnings and county emergency officials say flash flood alerts sent out to hikers gave them a crucial window to reach higher ground before the rush of water hit. You know, they get rainstorms, but you know, we never expected it to turn out like that. Flash floods hit fast and often without much warning. You see the water starting to rise. You could see, uh, waterfalls, mudslides coming off the canyon walls. Um, and then it just progressively started to get worse. That's when emergency alerts become a lifeline. We started to get notices from the National Park Service that they were evac and hikers out of the, uh, Phantom Ranch Campground, Bright Angel Campgrounds. The Grand Canyon River Alert system sends free flash flood warnings straight to satellite devices and satellite capable phones. When you have zero cell service, many modern smartphones have this ability. It's pretty short message. We don't really, uh, take a lot of time, waste a lot of time doing that. It's, you know, here's the agency sending it. Here's the date and time and here's what's going on where that way we want the message to get as quickly as we can so folks can take whatever appropriate action. According to National Park Service officials, the flash flooding started around 2 30 p.m. On Saturday, August 29. The first alert was sent just before 12 30. We sent a total of 15 messages over the next 48 hours. Some of those were a mixture of flash flood warnings issued by the weather service. Uh, some of them were messages sent at the request of the National Park Service. Emergency leaders say this collaborative alert system between Coconino County, the National Park Service and the National Weather Service is saving lives. While it doesn't replace situational awareness, it gives them one more tool to receive those life safety messages of potential hazards that could impact so being able to get that message and then take appropriate action to save lives. That's the entire point of this system. In order to receive the alerts, you do have to sign up if you'd like to. We have a link on our website at Fox 10 phoenix dot com in studio tonight. Megan Spector, Fox 10 News.