A Provo fire captain, his wife and their three sons were found dead over the weekend near Sunglow Campground in southern Utah.
The Wayne County Sheriff’s Office said that it believed the deaths of the family, who likely arrived in the area at the end of last week to hike and canyoneer, were related to flooding caused by heavy rain.
The sheriff’s office declined to provide the names of those who died. The Provo Fire and Rescue Department posted a message on social media over the weekend, though, noting the deaths of Captain Spencer Long and his family. A spa co-founded by Katrina Long, the wife of the fire captain, posted a similar message about the family’s tragedy.
Susan Gubler, the mother of Ms. Long, said in an interview that she had received a call on Friday that Captain Long and two young males, presumed to be her grandsons Thayne and Gage, had been found dead in the area near the campground. The following day, she received another call that two more bodies, which she understood to be those of her daughter and her grandson Reid, had been found.
The daughter of the Longs, Lydia, was not on the trip and survives them.
David Church, a science and operations officer with the National Weather Service in Salt Lake City, said that the tragic deaths were a reminder of how rapidly weather can turn dangerous. Utah has been in an active monsoon pattern with heavy rainfall and thunderstorms for days. Portions of the southern half of the state continue to be under a flood watch, and burn scars left by recent wildfires that have ravaged Utah are particularly vulnerable to flooding, Mr. Church said. In recent weeks, flooding has also turned deadly in Kentucky and Texas.
The weather service had issued flood watches for Sunglow Canyon on Friday. That day, thunderstorms producing heavy rainfall originated over Thousand Lake Mountain and, within about 30 minutes, moved southwest toward Sunglow Campground, Mr. Church said.
When heavy rain strikes complex, steep, dry-wash terrain like that of Sunglow Canyon, water can pool quickly and can be difficult to escape, he said.
Ms. Gubler said the accident did not make sense to her, given Captain Long’s training. He had canyoneered in the area several times, she said.
“He seemed fearless to me,” Ms. Gubler said, noting that he loved to ride his motorbike, hike and hunt.
Ms. Gubler said that Lydia, the couple’s only surviving child, had a “massive mountain on her shoulders.”
Ms. Gubler said the family were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and that they would read scripture together at night.
“They were, I call them, heavenly father’s dream team,” she said. “And I think he needed that dream team somewhere else.”
Bree Nielson, a friend of the couple who created a GoFundMe for their daughter, said of the family: “You couldn’t help but feel uplifted when you were around them.”
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