Helicopter Plucks Four From Car Roof in Raging Arizona Creek

A helicopter crew lifted four people to safety from the roof of a car swept down a raging creek near Rimrock on Thursday afternoon, October 22, after floodwaters carried the vehicle away at a crossing.

Footage released by the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office shows the white car sitting in fast-flowing brown water with its occupants huddled on the roof, as a helicopter hovers overhead and deputies watch from the bank through the trees.

Deputies were called at about 3:15 p.m. to reports of people stranded in a rapidly rising riverbed at the Wet Beaver Creek crossing, near East Dragonshead Road and Culpepper Ranch Road, the sheriff’s office said. Searching the flooded area on foot, they found the vehicle about 150 feet downstream.

Deputies passed its exact GPS coordinates to a state Department of Public Safety Ranger helicopter, whose crew then carried out an aerial extraction of all four people.