Southwest
Texas hiker says Grand Canyon flash flood rescue was 'craziest day'
A Texas hiker recalled the deadly flash flooding that surged through Arizona’s Grand Canyon National Park and stranded more than 100 hikers last month as the “craziest day of their lives.”
Whitnye Raquel, 35, told SFGate that she and her friend Paige Renae had gone to the Havasupai Reservation for three nights, where the idyllic waterfalls, creek-side campground and the canyon’s famed blue-green waters draw visitors from around the world.
But steady rain on Aug. 22 quickly turned to disaster as the creek turned a muddy color and swelled, with water sprouting from the canyon walls and dislodging rocks.
“We just see boulders crumbling, and the sides of houses and school buildings just tumbling down the canyon walls,” Raquel told the outlet. “I grabbed Paige, because I thought it was going to come right through their grocery store and end us. You don’t think that you’re going to see something like that in real life. It felt like a movie.”
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The flash flood struck the area on Aug. 22, stranding more than 100 park visitors. (Michael Langer via AP)
Raquel said Havasupai tribal members allowed tourists to shelter in their village inside a school cafeteria. The initial flash flood had wiped out wooden bridges and ladders used to cross streams along the trail, and a second rush of water made hiking out impossible.
The flash flood washed out wooden bridges used to cross the creek and made hiking out impossible. (Michael Langer via AP)
“That’s when they said, ‘The trail is now impossible,’” Raquel recalled the tribal members saying. “‘There are boulders blocking the trail. Nobody can hike in or out. You guys will all be helicopter-evacuated tomorrow morning. Nobody is hiking out of here.’”
Raquel said all the hikers sheltering with the tribe helped each other through the ordeal after having gone through what she called “the craziest day of their lives.”
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While a private helicopter service and an Arizona National Guard Blackhawk helicopter worked to ferry 104 evacuees out of the canyon, park officials confirmed that two hikers – a husband and wife – had been swept away in the rush of water near where Havasu Creek empties into the Colorado River.
The two hikers were identified as Andrew and Chenoa Nickerson, of Gilbert, Arizona. Andrew Nickerson was rescued later that night by a group rafting the 280-mile stretch of the river that runs through the Grand Canyon.
“I was seconds from death when a random stranger jumped from his river raft and risked his life without hesitation to rescue me from the raging waters,” Nickerson wrote later on social media.
Havasu Creek is a tributary to the Colorado River, where Nickerson’s body was found days after being swept away in a flash flood, officials said. (National Park Service)
His wife, 33-year-old Chenoa Nickerson, was swept into the river’s main channel and remained missing for days. Like most hikers at Havasupai, she wasn’t wearing a life jacket.
Members of a commercial river trip later found her body floating in the Colorado River.
Raquel told SFGate that the experience serves as a reminder “that the human doesn’t stand a chance compared to the sheer force of mother nature.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Read the full article from Here
Taco Bell’s Mountain Dew Baja Blast Gelato made its nationwide debut Tuesday as part of the company’s “Bajaversary,” a celebration of its signature tropical soda.
The tropical lime-flavored treat is available exclusively for Taco Bell rewards members who order through the app.
Last summer, Taco Bell tested the frozen treat at its location in Irvine.
“This is the first time we are releasing a gelato, and we are so excited to hear how fans enjoy the sweet and creamy indulgence,” Liz Matthews, global chief food innovation officer at Taco Bell, said previously in a statement.
Those interested in Taco Bell’s rewards program can sign up here.
A chain of good samaritans saved three abandoned puppies from a dumpster in San Dimas on Sunday.
The rescue began when a local employee went outside for a break and heard puppies crying. He traced the sound to a nearby business complex on the 900 block of N. Cataract Ave. and pulled three starving German Shepherds from the dumpster.
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An employee found three puppies in a San Gabriel Valley dumpster on his work break and helped start their rescue. September 2024. (Carolyn Castro) -
Three puppies get bathed and sheltered by good samaritans after they were found abandoned in a dumpster on Sunday. September 2024. (Carolyn Castro) -
Three puppies stick close together in the back seat of their rescuer’s car after they were found abandoned in a dumpster on Sunday. September 2024. (Carolyn Castro)
This employee alerted his business owner, who then posted to a Facebook group called “Lost and Found pets of La Verne and San Dimas.”
Carolyn Castro, an admin for the group, picked up the dogs from the employee and brought them to get medical attention. She told KTLA she’s working with the rescue Big Dog Haven to help nurse the puppies back to health and assist in getting them adopted.
Castro also said she plans to go back to the San Dimas business complex and see if there is any available surveillance video that may have captured who dumped the puppies.
A doomsday bunker company based in Dallas, Texas, has seen a recent increase in clients, noting that many Americans are worried about social unrest today.
Ron Hubbard, owner of Atlas Survival Shelters, told Fox News Digital in a phone interview this week that almost half of Americans think the U.S. could see a civil war.
Atlas Survival Shelters manufactures different types of survival shelters used to protect people “in case of a pandemic outbreak, civil unrest, malicious mobs, and biological nuclear fallout or EMP (electromagnetic pulse) attacks from homegrown terrorists or other nations,” the company’s website says.
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Thirteen percent of Americans feel a civil war is “very likely” — with an additional 34% saying it is “likely,” according to a Marist National Poll done in May.
“Business is booming right now. We do bunkers anywhere from a million dollars to as low as $20,000. Some of our bunkers are even more than a million,” said Hubbard.
The average bunker from Atlas Survival Shelters sells for about $400,000, with nine rooms. (Atlas Survival Shelters)
“On average, most of the bunkers we do are about half a million dollars, because the kind of clientele that’s buying bunkers right now are not poor.”
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The average bunker has about nine rooms — and is “turnkey.”
Hubbard said that on average, he sells at least one bunker per day and his phone rings off the hook.
He said his bunkers are not like others out there with modern features catering to the lifestyles of the rich and famous.
“The interiors of my bunkers look like houses” and anyone who saw them would think they were inside a hotel room, said Ron Hubbard of Atlas Survival Shelters to Fox News Digital. (Atlas Survival Shelters)
“The interiors of my bunkers look like houses” and anyone who saw them would think they were inside a hotel room, said Hubbard.
“They want to be in something that feels like a luxury bomb shelter.”
“This is why I work for a lot of high-end clients. Because they realize they don’t want to suffer and be in a metal box. They want to be in something that feels like a luxury bomb shelter.”
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Kim and Khloé Kardashian, as well as Mr. Beast, are among his impressive list of clients.
In addition to a factory in Dallas, Atlas Survival Shelters also has one in Poland that caters to European clients.
Ron Hubbard said the Middle East is a “hotbed” for clients of his “doomsday shelters.” (Atlas Survival Shelters)
Serving clients in the United States and around the world, Hubbard said the Middle East has become “a hotbed” for clients.
“Countries like the United Arab Emirates … [are] picking up habits from Israel, which is they take a single room in an apartment in a high-rise because people mostly live in high rises, in Israel … Like a small bedroom — 10 foot-by-12 foot is the average size. And they turn that room into a solid concrete poured room with a gas pipe door and a nuclear biological chemical air filtration system.”
Hubbard said he has been sharing the idea with American builders.
“They should pick up these Israeli standards and turn a single room in a house into a hardened room and that would protect people from gunfire, from tornadoes, from hurricanes, from civil unrest,” he said.
Atlas Survival Shelters has two factories, one in Dallas, Texas, and one in Poland. (Atlas Survival Shelters)
His company does more than just sell bunkers, said Hubbard.
It also tries to educate people about preparedness.
Atlas Survival Shelters has garnered 267,000 followers on Instagram, with a million likes on TikTok.
Read the full article from Here
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