Officials say at least two people are dead and over a dozen others are missing after catastrophic floods struck a remote area of the Grand Canyon. KPNX's Kyle Simchuk reports with a live look at the current state of the canyon.
Page A9From§Eachthe matinee edition — 31 August 2026
Flood deaths top 900 in Nepal, two in Grand Canyon; storms forecast to return
Floods in Nepal have now killed over 900, with more than 4,400 missing according to ABC News, and flash flooding in the Grand Canyon left at least two dead, with further storms in the forecast. CBS News notes climate change is amplifying the severity and frequency of these events, while The Hill reports more storms may be imminent. The numbers are stark: hundreds gone in one region, a tragedy in another, and the forecast promising more of the same. The receipts keep stacking, and the world's response remains incremental. The scale of it—thousands lost, and the next storm already lined up—puts the lie to the idea that disaster is rare or contained. The message is plain: what was once a hundred-year storm is now annual, and the cost is measured in missing persons and funerals. This is how the ledger fills in the climate column: first with water, then with bodies. The world's playbook for disaster relief is being rewritten with every headline, but the pace of the rewriting never seems to match the speed of the flood. The stakes are everywhere the rain falls, and the receipts are getting harder to ignore. The numbers do not need adjectives; they do the work themselves.
“Floods killed nearly a thousand in Nepal, and two in the Grand Canyon, and now the forecast says more storms are coming. Climate change is getting written in water, and the numbers just keep climbing. If you think it can't happen here, check the weather report.”
“Look, weather events happen. Sometimes they're tragic, but it's important to remember that local factors, not global ones, are at play. Climate change is a complicated topic—did I say complicated? I mean, it's not proven that these floods are caused by it. Anyway, the government is responding appropriately, and that's what matters.”
The receipts
Events like the Nepal flash floods are highlighting the potential rising impact of climate change. Dr. Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the California Institute for Water Resources, joins CBS News with more insight.
The death toll from last week's flash flooding disaster in the Nepal-Tibet border region rose to at least 955 people as of Monday.
The deluge also seriously damaged the only water pipeline in the canyon.
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front.