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Search For Man Missing In Arizona Flood Called Off Due To Storms

search team
(Photo by Stina Sieg - KJZZ)
The search team on July 17, 2017.

The search for a man missing since Saturday north of Payson was called off again Tuesday due to storms in the area. 

Hector Garnica was swept away when a flash flood swept through a swimming hole where he and his family were playing. His wife and three children drowned in the flood.

Tiffany Davila with the U.S. Forest Service describes the conditions searchers are working in "the water is about 5 to 6 foot in debris. It's ashy, it’s black, it’s murky, so that it makes it easier and safer for crews to get in and search."

The bodies of the other nine victims have been recovered. All of the victims were at the same gathering of extended family at a swimming hole north of Phoenix when the wall of water moved through.

Incident commander Pruett Small said Tuesday morning the Hector Garnica, who was swept away along with 14 others, probably didn't survive. Four others were rescued Saturday.

"We are pretty much convinced that it has a fatality, and it's a body recovery for us," said Small. "But that doesn't diminish our attempts to find the victim and get that person to the family, so the family can begin their process of closure and the process of grieving.

Detective David Hornung, with the Gila County Sheriff’s Office, has been meeting with the victims’ relatives.

"They are devastated. They are in shock. They’re broken-hearted. It’s really ... I don’t know the words to describe how they feel," said Hornung.

Hornung said among dead is an entire family — a mother and father, along with their three children, ages 3 to 7.

To hear an interview with KJZZ's Stina Sieg on The Show, click here.

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Stina Sieg was a senior field correspondent at KJZZ from 2013 to 2018.