Four people were rescued by helicopter in Rimrock, Arizona, after successive waves of heavy thunderstorms sent Wet Beaver Creek in Yavapai County rising nearly 4 feet Thursday.
Powerful, rapidly moving floodwaters swept a white SUV downstream, leaving all four occupants stranded on its roof until an Arizona Department of Public Safety Air Rescue Unit helicopter arrived.
Video shared online captured the dramatic operation, showing a rescuer being lowered from the helicopter over dangerous floodwaters to reach one of the stranded passengers.
The Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office said deputies were dispatched at about 3:15 p.m. on Oct. 22 after receiving reports of people trapped in a quickly rising riverbed near East Dragonshead Road and Culpepper Ranch Road.
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When deputies reached the Wet Beaver Creek crossing, they found that the intense current had swept the vehicle away from its original position.
According to the National Weather Service, repeated thunderstorms produced heavy rain that caused Wet Beaver Creek to rise nearly 4 feet and sparked life-threatening flash flooding across Yavapai County.
Deputies searched the dangerous, heavily flooded area on foot before locating the SUV roughly 150 feet downstream. All four people were still on the vehicle’s roof.
Once deputies secured the SUV’s precise GPS coordinates, they transmitted the location to a DPS Ranger helicopter.
Using those coordinates, the helicopter crew carried out an aerial rescue and brought all four occupants to safety.
