Sisters with Maine ties were hiking in Grand Canyon when devastating flash flood hit
By Jim Keithley
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PORTLAND, Maine (WMTW) — A major flash flood that swept through the Grand Canyon on Saturday killed two people, and one person remains unaccounted for.
More than 80 people were rescued over the weekend, including two sisters with Maine ties and their friend, the three of whom spent five hours clinging to each other and witnessed something they never want to see again.
For sisters Jessica Buscher and Melanie McGuirk and their friend, Katie Brink, their hike in the Grand Canyon started out perfectly. But they were quickly caught off guard when the flood hit at about 2:30 p.m. Saturday.
The women said they hunkered down and held onto each other on a ledge, shielded by a rock and clinging on for dear life.
“I was holding on just with my fingertips. I was standing there getting splashed with mud,” Brink said.
The trio experienced chaos in their scramble to stay alive.
“You can hear all the boulders tumbling down the river and it’s shaking where you’re sitting, so it feels like there’s an earthquake the whole time you’re sitting there,” McGuirk said.
The women said they spotted three men hiking behind them. They believe those men were John Giusti and Brent Rosenkranz, whose bodies have been recovered, and Timothy Smith, who was still missing as of Tuesday.
“The last time I looked at them, they were actively crossing the bridge,” Brink said.
At one point, Buscher and McGuirk got separated from Brink. The sisters thought their friend had been swept away.
“I think as soon as Katie was out of our sight, I think both of us assumed she was gone,” Buscher said.
Brink thought the same thing happened to Buscher and McGuirk.
“For 20 minutes, I thought that they got swept away and I was there alone,” Brink said.
After a while, the three women were reunited.
“Katie came around the corner on that trail, and we were both just shocked,” Buscher said.
Rescue helicopters came and went, until one crew spotted the three women and got them to safety.
“That helicopter looked at us and 45 minutes later, we see them come up over the hill in front of us,” McGuirk said.
The three women said they were thankful to the rescuers who saved them, and that their hearts go out to family members of those hikers who did not survive.
“I get to come to my kids and still experience their lives, and people who were 100 feet behind us do not,” Buscher said.
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