Grand Canyon flash floods expose concerns over rushed reopening post-fire

GRAND CANYON, Ariz. - Former leaders at Grand Canyon National Park are sounding the alarm, stating park officials rushed to reopen areas burned by last year's Dragon Bravo Fire.

What we know:

Those areas, including parts of the fire's burn scar, were cited as a factor in the deadly flash floods last month in the inner canyon. Late last month, floodwaters ripped through the inner canyon, killing at least two people and severely damaging the South Rim's water pipeline.

Former high-ranking park official Robert Parrish explained that the push to keep tourist dollars flowing likely overlooked environmental warning signs, noting, "It wasn't a matter of if, it was just a matter of when."

Parrish worked for nearly five years as the chief of planning, environment and projects at Grand Canyon National Park. He was part of the interagency response to the Dragon Bravo Fire before leaving the park in late September for a job with the Snyderville Basin Special Recreation District in Utah. Parrish said the initial focus was on assessing the damage to the infrastructure on the North Rim and making sure workers were taken care of and able to retrieve any belongings that survived the fire.

Next, there was a focus on clearing the dead trees and getting a Burned Area Environmental Response, or BAER, team out to the area for assessments.

Short-term planning was meant to focus on recovery until winter, with mid-term planning centered around what spring would look like. Conversations about long-term planning included concerns over future weather events.

"There were a lot of us that were concerned about what are those unknowns that are going to come into play over the next year, year and a half as the ground and the park seasons again," Parrish said.

Dig deeper:

Criticism over the timeline chosen to reopen parts of the park affected by the Dragon Bravo Fire, including the North Kaibab Trail, is founded, according to Parrish.

"I do recall when we were having these discussions last fall is we recognized that those first few storm events were really going to be the majors ones because that’s where a lot of the debris, a lot of the ash and a lot of the damage comes from and once that gets washed out that’s where the plant and forest vegetation will naturally start to recover because the rain has kind of cleansed it so we really did need a good rain event to cleanse things out, unfortunately the good rain event was what happened in August and there was a lot more damage and lives were lost," Parrish said.

Parrish noticed an "open now, recover later" mentality when it comes to natural disasters in national parks.

"There's always a push, whether it be from local businesses, state agencies, local economies and at the national level too, to get back open as soon as possible, get visitors in there, keep the economy going," Parrish said. "I think the people on the ground in the park from the superintendent on down really understood what was going on but you know, the Grand Canyon while it may only be in Arizona, really does sit on the national stage."

The August flash floods damaged the Transcanyon Waterline, forcing overnight lodges to close and leaving hundreds of employees furloughed. One South Rim worker, who asked to remain anonymous to protect their job, said staff is in the dark about reopening plans, with misinformation swirling over potential return dates.

"Knowing or not knowing how this is gonna go down, it's been really tough," the employee said. "I didn't expect this, I expected a busy season to be starting right now."

In the meantime, the employee expressed gratitude for the lodging and meals provided by their employer. However, the employee agreed that decision-making seems focused on keeping the revenue stream coming rather than protecting the full recovery of the park. Long-term protocol surrounding the water supply to the South Rim remains an ongoing concern in the community, and benefits could come from keeping the park closed until that protocol is in place.

"I feel like it needs to be shut down," the employee said. "I feel like they need to be open to new ideas. We're the ones affected fiscally, since the restaurants and the lodges are shut down, so to me I hate the hypocrisy of that."

Parrish says many of the park staff he worked with care deeply about visitors and the safety of the park, but says outside pressures, especially those on the national scale, can have influence over decisions.

What's next:

Parrish hopes messaging to visitors moving forward supports a non-rushed approach to recovery.

"Encourage people to hike other areas of the park or explore other areas of the park and give the staff on the ground time and contractors that come in to get assessments done, get some real recovery work done, before you basically just put enough of a bandaid on it to stop the bleeding," Parrish said.

Budget cuts to national parks have led to deferred maintenance and other obstacles that keep the park from continuously addressing smaller issues rather than waiting for a natural disaster to occur, according to Parrish.

The park is still open on the South Rim for day use, but Stage 4 water restrictions remain in place. Fox 10 reached out to the National Park Service and the Department of the Interior for comment and await a response.