They Set Out For A Grand Canyon Camping Trip. Then Disaster Struck

A planned hiking trip to the Grand Canyon turned into a fight for survival for two sisters and their friend after a sudden flash flood hit the area on August 29.

Melanie McGuirk, Jessica Buscher and their friend Katie Brink were hiking the North Kaibab Trail and were heading towards Bright Angel Campground, where they had planned to stay overnight. The three women had met a park ranger around 1:50 pm. The weather appeared to be good at the time.

But less than 30 minutes later, the situation changed completely. A sudden flash flood hit the trail, leading to heavy rain and water rushing through the canyon.

"It was terrifying from start to finish. It was like a whiteout of rain," McGuirk told Fox 10. "From every direction. All at once," Buscher added.

The women rushed to higher ground and climbed onto a narrow ledge above the trail. During the chaos, they lost sight of Brink, who was stuck on another part of the ledge.

"Brink was at the bottom of a ledge that we were sitting on, and she was just on the other side of it. She was hanging on the wall like this for 20 minutes, terrified, water coming up to her knees," said McGuirk.

The sisters feared that she would be swept away. Brink, meanwhile, thought the sisters had been washed away. "Katie was going through the same thing. She had assumed that we were both gone," said Buscher.

The three eventually managed to find each other again when the water level dropped slightly. But they were still trapped. "She sees us, and there's this moment of you don't believe it," Buscher added.

At around 3:10 pm, McGuirk activated a Garmin SOS emergency beacon to call for help. The women recalled that there was barely enough space for them to sit. They were worried that the rocks could break or fall, or that another wave of rainwater could wash them back towards the trail.

The women then spent nearly four hours on the narrow ledge waiting for rescuers. "We never really felt safe; we didn't know if we'd get rescued before dark. We didn't know how much of the trail was washed out, we didn't know how far down we could go," said McGuirk.

The women were finally rescued at around 7 pm and airlifted to safety.

The flash flood was deadly for others in the area. National Park Service officials confirmed that two hikers were killed, while another person remains missing.

The survivors said they are struggling to come to terms with what happened. Buscher said she has been dealing with survivor's guilt after remembering three men they had seen on the trail who did not survive.

The Grand Canyon was hit by severe flash flooding on Saturday afternoon, August 29.