Thanks for that. Sweet that you would be concerned.
No worries on our end. We were miles and miles away. AKA, "playing on the weekends." We spent the weekend at the Grand Canyon. Hiking, biking, figuring out that I am way too old for this "active lifestyle thing." We rode 30 miles on Saturday. Pooped. Plum tuckered out. (And I do at least 30 minutes a day of cardio, on a bike) Pictures of our weekend.
The storms have been pretty impressive. Sunday night was good, short one this afternoon, etc. Tuesday is forecast to be the winner winner. I am scheduled for Vegas. Rats. Tis the season.
The last picture of the set (behind a blue Jeep) is a place we were at over fourth of July called Payete Draw. That draw is part of Ellison Creek. The people were killed where Ellison Creek and East Verde River meet. About five miles from the house. We go up when the valley people are not there (Most are pretty well rude dickweeds that just trash the place) and take the dogs. Nice place to play in the water for them. I suspect there will be calls to "close the fun" so folks don't get hurt.
It is tragic no doubt, but if you play in a creek, during monsoon season, below a recent fire scar area, well, flash floods happen. We have had large death flash floods in the area before. 1970 saw 23 die. Not an uncommon event. People don't make the connection between the topography, drainage, storms, etc. Every year people die, some by lightning, some by flood. Most all could have been prevented with an understanding that nature pretty well does what it wants.
The video below is an area of the same river about five miles from "water wheel" were the folks were killed. Some of the canyon walls, etc are pretty steep and mostly rock. No way out in a hurry for lots of the creeks around here. It can and does go from mild to wild pretty quickly.
