Deadly flash floods hit polygamous community in Utah

The Telegraph ^ | 9/15/15

[markomalley]

Search-and-rescue teams trudged through muddy streambeds on Tuesday in a small polygamous town on the Utah-Arizona border, looking for people who were missing after a devastating flash flood that killed at least 15 people.

With more rain in the forecast, men in helmets were perched at high points along the route, watching carefully for any more floodwaters that could suspend the search in Hildale, the secluded community that is the home base of Warren Jeffs' polygamist sect.

Only one person was still missing Tuesday afternoon out of 16 people - three women and 13 children - who were in two vehicles that got smashed Monday by a wall of water and carried several hundred yards downstream. Authorities had not identified the dead. Three people survived, all of them children.

[firebrand]

Many warning signs.

[JimSEA]

They can’t watch TV or listen to the radio so this is what happens. They never thought it might be coming so they went to see the flood. Very sad. Thank you Warren Jeffs.

[2banana]

First the crane in Mecca and now this

[ClearCase_guy]

I’ve heard of sister cities and I guess I don’t see anything wrong with it, but I draw the line at polygamous towns. It ain’t right.

[BlackVeil]

I’ve heard of sister cities and I guess I don’t see anything wrong with it, but I draw the line at polygamous towns. It ain’t right.

Rubbish - you are behind the times.

What is your position on same-sex marriage between suburbs?

[Vesparado]

“Gay Pari” and .... ?

[BenLurkin]

I wonder if more might have lived if they hadn’t been encumbered by those long dresses.

[To Hell With Poverty]

I have to wonder if they saw it as a chance to escape, but didn’t make it.

[JennysCool]

I know this is a tragic event and my prayers are with the victims but I can't help it:

Run for your wives!

Okay. That's off my chest. Sorry.

[b4its2late]

They’re insane to boot. One wife is more than enough and sometimes even that is too much!

[glock rocks]

Let’s have a hearty FR yuk-it-up that these women and children were caught up in an epic flash flood and swept to their death. Ghouls.

[USNBandit]

As a learning point, the most likely way of dying in a flood is driving across a moving body of water. Only takes a few inches to float a vehicle

[glock rocks]

My understanding is they were off the side of the road observing and a wall of water swept them downstream. This was no ordinary storm.

[vette6387]

“I’ve heard of sister cities and I guess I don’t see anything wrong with it, but I draw the line at polygamous towns. It ain’t right.”

Yeah, I’m no fan of polygamy either, but you do realize that it’s coming back courtesy of the SCOTUS. And after that, they will “legalize” marriages to your dog or favorite farm animal!

[glock rocks]

The incident began about 4:30 p.m. Monday when two vehicles, a full-size van and a Suburban, came to a crossing at Canyon Street near the mouth of Maxwell Canyon in Hildale where water was flowing down the street. The group got out of their vehicles to wait for the flood waters to pass. "They had stopped because they couldn't cross," Barlow said. 

 While they were outside their vehicles, with little to no warning, a wall of water came out of the canyon. "It went rushing down, and it actually came around behind the vehicles and engulfed them down," the mayor said. The 16 people got back into the cars — nine in the van and seven in the Suburban, according to at least one resident — before the vehicles were swept away. The two vehicles were found about a quarter-mile away down Short Creek.

http://www.ksl.com/?sid=36528795&nid=148&title=16-possibly-20-die-in-devastating-southern-utah-flash-floods&fm=home_page&s_cid=topstory

[Fiji Hill]

Notice the flood victims in their nineteenth-century style dresses.

When I visited the area in 2008, I went into a food store and all the women were dressed in postbellum outfits--long dresses with long sleeves, mostly in solid colors, but one girl wore a gingham dress with a checkerboard pattern. Interestingly, they were all 20-somethings. The few men that I saw were much older and all were wearing Western-style shirts. I felt like I had gone through a time warp back to the days of President Garfield, Arthur or Cleveland.

Interestingly, for a town that small and remote, many of the houses in the residential neighborhoods seemed unusually large. I wonder why?

[dsrtsage]

Read up on what happens to the male teens that come from these polygamous arrangements. Remember, when there are dozens of young men in comparison to young women, all of which are taken, the young men become and enormous threat, that must be nipped in the bud.

[RginTN]

Just plain evil. Young males of this sect thrown out like trash. The women do nothing.

Its amazing their are even enough males there to carryon on the cult. Do they make sure some don’t get tossed I wonder to make sure that doesn’t happen...sad

[o-n-money]

One wife is more than enough and sometimes even that is too much!

---

And we know that bigamy carries strict penalties: two mothers in law