Creek rose unusually fast on Scouts

It was cold, pouring rain laced with sleet, and the waters rushing past the truck were getting deeper by the minute. Four Boy Scouts and two parents huddled atop a truck in the middle of a flooded wash with water up to the roof.

Deputies knew there wasn't enough time to wait for a search-and-rescue team. So they set to work, throwing ropes and life jack-ets and eventually securing the vehicle against the raging 6-foot flow. But the truck rolled, and in the end, only three people were saved.Fearing the driving rain and flooding made it too dangerous for Troop 286 to stay in the mountains Saturday night, troop leaders decided to head home. Officials said the tragedy shows once again how unpredictable and deadly flooded roads can be.

"Until you've been there, you don't understand the force of this water and what it can do," said Capt. Larry Black, commander of the Maricopa County Sheriff's Lake Patrol. "I've heard it come so fast it sounded like a train."

The tragedy happened near Sunflower, a small town on State Route 87 about 40 miles northeast of the Phoenix metropolitan area.

Black arrived at the flood scene after the Ford Explorer rolled and two Scouts and a parent were pulled to safety. They had hung on for more than two hours.

He said two other vehicles safely made it across the wash ahead of the Explorer, which stalled halfway. Black said the water level rose 4 to 5 feet in 30 minutes, almost covering the truck's roof.

Rescuers searched through the night and into the early morning before finding the bodies of the three victims, Jarron Dirvonas, 12, and Scott Zimmerman, 11, both of Gilbert, and Dean Alexander, 38, of Chandler.

Even though they routinely warn motorists of the danger of flash floods and water-logged roadways, officials say this tragedy was escalated by the relatively low depth of the water when the Explorer started across and the particularly swift deepening of the floodwaters.

"Given the circumstances, I would have to say anybody could have been fooled by this," Black said. "I think (they) were definitely experienced enough to know that water can be dangerous."

Sgt. Joel Fox, also with Lake Patrol, arrived about an hour before the truck rolled. He said rescue efforts were hampered by severe weather conditions that kept helicopters at bay while other campers in the party waited nearby for word on their Scoutmates.

"It was pretty harrowing," Fox said. "This is the highest and swiftest water that I have dealt with."

E. Earl "Sonny" Hays, Scout executive for the Grand Canyon Council of the Boy Scouts of America, said the camping trip was well organized and the adults in the group were seasoned. Troop 286, is sponsored by a Presbyterian Church in Gilbert, Ariz.

"What you have here is tenured leaders but extraordinary weather circumstances," Hays said.