Heavy Rain, Guam
- When
- August 10, 10:00 AM GST to 7:00 PM GST
- Where
- Guam County, 1.29 mi WSW of Sinajana
- Deaths
- 1 direct, 0 indirect
- Reported by
- Newspaper
- Coordinates
- 13.443, 144.732
Afternoon thunderstorms developed over the island of Guam, a light wind flow pattern prevailed across the area and because of this the storms were nearly stationary.
A lot of hikers had taken to Guam's trails that day because it was Saturday and the day had begun as a sunny one. One group, consisting of 4 people, decided to trek to San Carlos Falls (located at 13 26' 33N 144 43'56.8E) on the Lonfit River. The group consisted of a younger female hiker (niece), her older aunt, and two other people.
As the thunderstorms began to form over central Guam, the heavy rain and slow movement of the convection caused water in the Lonfit River to rise quickly. Along with the rise in the river was an increase in its current, which became stronger over a short period of time. Faced with a quickly rising river and strong current, the hikers made the decision to head back and away from the river.
The river, however, rose very quickly from ankle deep to waist deep in minutes. |Despite their best efforts, everything they could grab onto was being swept away |by the rushing river. The group decided that they no choice but to climb straight |up the sheer sides of the river on either side of them. One of the hikers in this |group was able to make it out of the river and onto a high ridge, but access to the ridge was blocked by the time others tried to join him.
The younger female hiker, the niece, tried to climb higher, but there was nothing for her to hold onto. Despite grabbing at rocks and leaves, her and her aunt kept slipping off the bank. They went back into the river where the niece climbed up on a rock. The niece picked-up her aunt and asked her to stand on the rock that she was on. The rock was higher and safer, but the aunt refused to take her niece's spot. The aunt was concerned where the niece was going to stand. With the current dragging the aunt away, the niece jumped into the water and chased after her aunt. Her effort was unfortunately in vain as the current was too strong and this kept the niece from helping the aunt. Another hiker came back to assist the niece and pulled her from the water. Eventually the pair made it to the top of the ridge, from where the niece called 911. The niece, the aunt and the two other hikers were airlifted out of the area by a helicopter from the Navy Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 25. The 43 year old aunt was brought to Naval Hospital, where she later died.
This was not the only group of hikers to experience the fury of rising water. Rising waters on another river, the Ylig, stranded 20 hikers. High waters prevented 10 members of this group from crossing the river. The situation was not as dire here as on the Lonfit River and none of the hikers were in physical distress. By 7 pm that|evening all 20 members of the group were accounted for as they made it to Tarzan Pools on the Ylig River.