Severe Weather and Flash Floods Wreak Havoc in the Southwestern United States Causing Massive Flight Delays

Flash floods in the American southwest have closed parts of national parks, including Moab and Zion, stopped highways in Colorado, swamped cars in Texas, and trapped visitors in a New Mexico cave in recent days.

A young woman is still missing after being swept away while hiking in Zion National Park on Friday.

Thunderstorms from Texas to the US East Coast hampered air transportation, making it one of the worst days for flight cancellations for airlines and passengers.

A Washington Post report stated that 1,485 planes were canceled and almost 6,000 were delayed.

According to the publication, American, Southwest, and United were the hardest hit of the major airlines.

Flash flood in southwest US

(Photo : Chris Gallagher/Unsplash)

Summer monsoons are a natural element of the southwest, and parched landscapes can usually count on them, but the intensity of the wet and dry extremes is rising, as is the havoc that each may wreak.

Scientists expected that as the world warms, the impacts will worsen, as per The Guardian.

"There is a duality in the effect of climate change on the hydrologic cycle," said Dr Andrew Hoell, a meteorologist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's physical sciences laboratory, noting that high rains and underlying drought conditions exist on different time scales.

It will require a continuous rainy season over the chilly winter months to break the conditions, and forecasts aren't encouraging.

Jetal Agnihotri, 29, of Tucson, was reported missing after being washed away by floodwaters in Utah's Zion National Park.

According to a news release from Zion National Park's spokesperson, Jonathan Shafer, her corpse was located Monday about 6 miles (9.6 kilometers) south of where she was washed away, ending a four-day search.

"Our search and rescue operation is still ongoing," Shafer said. "We have searchers in the field again today, and we are collaborating with the National Weather Service to watch the prediction, which we will pay great attention to in the future."

Meanwhile, officials at Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico reported approximately 150 people were evacuated late Saturday night after becoming stranded due to rising water.

Because of flash floods, park officials advised visitors to stay at the visitor's center for many hours.

On Friday, emergency services rescued four hikers stranded in Sabino Canyon east of Tucson and assisted 41 Marana kids and staff off school buses that became caught in high water as the storms moved in.

A slow-moving storm dumped unprecedented quantities of rain on the Dallas-Fort Worth area, necessitating rescues from rising floodwaters.

Also Read: Intense Flood Hits Madagascar's Capital Due to a Month-Long Rain

Severe weather causes cancellation of flights

Passengers who arrived at airports to board planes shared their terrifying experiences on social media, as per NDTV.

They complained about repeated cancellations in a single day, apparently unending customer service queues, and hours spent on the tarmac while the plane was taxiing.

"It was a nightmare last night," Sara Nelson, international president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, said.

One of the passengers was New York Times reporter Hiroko Tabuchi, who tweeted that her United Airlines flight from Newark to Denver was delayed for six hours before returning to the terminal because it "no longer had adequate fuel."

Following a protracted delay, passengers were instructed to exit the plane so that it could be refueled and boarding could resume, according to Tabuchi in a subsequent tweet.

Sherrie Wallace, another passenger who arrived at LaGuardia airport on her way home to Ohio, told CBS News that her flight never took off.

"I'm still here 24 hours later; my flight was delayed once, twice, three times, and then four times before they told us it was canceled," she explained.

According to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the average delay across the national airspace system on Monday was 37 minutes, with 92% attributable to weather, 5% due to volume, and only 3% due to staffing.

Related article: Flash Flood: 200 Evacuated as Floodwaters Sweep Through Turkey's Black Sea Region