MCAS team assists with flood rescue near Parker

  Yuma-based Marines assisted in a search and rescue operation early Tuesday morning during a flash flood in La Paz County that swamped two vehicles, killing one woman.

  "They were a big help," La Paz County Sheriff Hal Collett told The Sun. "I really appreciate it."

  Eunice Mork and four of her closest friends were returning from a trip they made all the time - a 55-mile drive from playing bingo in Parker to their homes in Salome.

  But this time, a raging flash flood in a normally dry wash near Bouse southeast of Parker caught Mork, 77, and her friends by surprise when it swamped her small sedan amid lightning, thunder, rain and wind in the pitch-black rural area. Water filled the wash 40 to 50 yards across and probably 4 or 5 feet deep.

  The five women climbed out of the car in an attempt to cling to it, but only two could hang on, Collett said. Mork and two others were swept away.

  "It was dramatic - the winds were blowing so heavy that the rain was going sideways," he said. "I can’t imagine how traumatic it was being swept away by the water."

  A recreational vehicle also was caught in the flooding.

  The incident was reported by a passer-by shortly before 11 p.m. Monday, Collett said.

  Four of the women and the driver of the RV were rescued.

 Deputies and Marines aboard a search-and-rescue helicopter from the Marine Corps Air Station Yuma spotted Mork's body about seven miles downstream from the entry site at about 6:30 a.m. Tuesday, said Collett. The helicopter then landed and the Marines assisted in the recovery of the deceased.

  "If it weren't for their help, I'm sure we would still have been looking for the body," Collett said. "That was a lot of area to cover."

  Collett said the Marines have come to the rescue before. "They are a resource we depend on in emergencies."

  The area around Parker was hit with between three and four inches of rain in just more than four hours on Monday, with some cloudbursts dropping rain at the rate of two to three inches in an hour’s time, said Mike McLane, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Phoenix.

  Just 25 miles from where Mork died, on the other side of the Colorado River in California, another woman died Monday night when her Honda sedan was shoved off a road by floodwaters. Rosemary Genc, 51, of Big River, was trapped under her overturned car and drowned.

  The incidents are a reminder to motorists that they shouldn't enter a flooding roadway or wash during a storm, Collett said.

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Joyce Lobeck can be reached at jlobeck@yumasun.com or 539-6853. The Associated Press contributed to this report.