SOME of the nine people who died in a flash flood at a swimming hole in Arizona were members of an extended family, said authorities who have resumed the search for one person still missing.
Officials had previously said the last missing person was a 13-year-old boy, but have since realised that his body was recovered on Sunday.
They said the missing person is a 27-year-old man and attributed the error to miscommunication due to having such a large number of victims.
The victims were swept away by a torrent of water on Saturday while at a swimming hole in the Tonto National Forest near Payson, about 100 miles north-east of Phoenix.
The flood was the result of a thunderstorm that dumped heavy rainfall just upstream. The storm unleashed 6ft-high floodwaters, dark with ash from a summer wildfire.
While authorities have not released the names of those who died, they gave more detail on the relationship between them.
"It was an extended family – brothers, sisters, aunts, cousins, a grandmother," Detective David Hornung of the Gila County Sheriff's Office said.
It is unclear how many of the victims were part of the extended family.
About 40 volunteer workers and four search dogs were searching for the missing man in debris piles near the swimming hole.
Disa Alexander was hiking to the swimming area where Ellison Creek and East Verde River converge on Saturday when the water suddenly surged.
Video she posted to social media showed torrents of water surging through jagged canyons carved in Arizona's signature red rock.
She spotted a man holding a baby and clinging to a tree. Nearby, his wife was also in a tree. A boy she described as the couple's son was on the rocks above the water.
Ms Alexander and others tried to reach them but could not. Fortunately help was close by.
Some search and rescue team members were already near the swimming hole after getting a call to help someone who had suffered a bad allergic reaction, Detective Hornung said.
Four people were rescued and taken to hospital to be treated for hypothermia.
The National Weather Service estimated up to 1.5in of rain fell over the area in an hour.
The thunderstorm hit about eight miles upstream along Ellison Creek, which quickly flooded the narrow canyon where the swimmers were.
Mr Hornung noted that the National Weather Service had issued a flash flood warning about one and a half hours before, "but unless they had a weather radio out there, they wouldn't have known about it. There is no cellphone service out here".
While Arizona is known for its dryness, it gets bursts of heavy rains during the summer monsoon season.
The severe thunderstorm was located in a remote area that had been burned by a recent wildfire.
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