Authorities will decide Monday whether a few hundred people in the area of the Grand Canyon still need to be evacuated, an official said.

Authorities halted the evacuation Sunday night of those initially thought to be in danger after rain breached an earthen dam at the Grand Canyon, said Gerry Blair, spokesman for the Coconino County Sheriff’s Office.

A decision about whether crews will evacuate them is expected Monday, Blair said.

The group awaiting word on evacuations were on high ground and did not appear to be in immediate danger by Sunday night, the spokesman said.

Rescue crews in helicopters evacuated about 170 others Sunday after water poured through Redland Dam, sending water down two canyons and threatening several hundred tourists and residents, Blair said.

Officials also plan to resume the search Monday for “less than 20″ people who were in the affected area and whose whereabouts are not yet known to authorities, Blair said.

The air evacuations were called off due to darkness at 8:30 p.m. Sunday (11:30 p.m. ET).

Most of the 170 people evacuated Sunday were campers, tourists and paddlers, he said.

A few hundred others — perhaps as many as 400 — remained in the area of concern. Most are permanent residents of Supai village, located within the Havasupai Indian Reservation at the bottom of the Grand Canyon.

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Tropical Storm Fay is expected to deliver up to a foot of rain to parts of Cuba, and with it, the possibility of life-threatening flash floods and mudslides, the National Hurricane Center said Monday.
At 8:15 a.m. ET Monday, Tropical Storm Fay was in the Gulf of Mexico, heading toward the Florida Keys.

Fay swept over western Cuba on Monday morning as it made its way to the eastern Gulf of Mexico and Florida Keys, according to the center’s 8 a.m. ET advisory out of Miami.
“The center of Fay should be emerging into the Florida Straits during the next few hours, and be very near the Florida Keys tonight,” the center said.

Maximum sustained winds strengthened to almost 60 mph (100 kph), with higher gusts, and the storm is expected to strengthen as it moves across the warm Gulf waters, the warning said.
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Gary Tuchman struggles to stand as Hurricane Dolly ravages South Padre Island, Texas. Read his experience below.
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Gary Tuchman
AC360° Correspondent

Don’t mess with Dolly

As I write this, much of South Padre Island, Texas is underwater. It looks very much like parts of Wisconsin, Iowa, and Missouri from a few weeks ago, but the way South Padre got to this point has been much more rapid fire…

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Jacqui Jeras
CNN Meteorologist and Weather Anchor

Here we go… the first hurricane to make landfall in the U.S. is just hours away. At the time I write this, it’s still a Tropical storm with winds of 70 mph. It needs to hit 74 mph to call it a hurricane. What are a few miles per hour between friends?

Dolly has been intensifying all morning and will continue to do so… there’s not much doubt it will be a hurricane later today, as there’s little in the way to weaken the storm before landfall.

Check out the Sea Surface temperatures map here.

Keep reading

CNN’s Betty Nguyen reports on Myanmar farmers struggling to survive after cyclone Nargis. Even after the disaster, it’s a hard road ahead as they try to salvage their crops.

Betty Nguyen brings us to Myanmar two months after cyclone Nargis hit. With the help of some locals, she was able to document the devastation and despair still evident. Watch her special report.

Frankie Davis and her husband paddle a boat through floodwaters back to their house in Foley, Mo., Wenesday.

Kay Jones
AC360° Staff

We just arrived in Foley, Missouri, a small town of about 150 people in Lincoln County. From where I’m standing, it looks as if the entire town is under water.

There are some hilly areas to the west of Main Street that are obviously dry. But Foley is flooded.

The police chief thought this would be the worst, as the river was supposed to be cresting now. But as we were speaking we got word that there is a new, higher crest prediction for Friday night, four inches more than what it is today.

He said it’s still lower than what they saw in ‘93 and that he thinks most people will come back and rebuild.

Gary Tuchman | BIO
AC360° Correspondent

The floodwaters in Winfield, Missouri continue to rise and rage; more homes are being flooded.

Some people are resorting to building their own levee systems surrounding their homes.

One man’s home looks like a houseboat; all you can see is the house and his levee. High water surrounds it on all sides.

He says he’ll leave his home if the water tops his levee, but not until then.

Mark Rowland wades through floodwater near his home, June 19. Levels have risen in Lincoln County since then.

Kay Jones
AC360° Staff

People in the flooded towns of Illinois and Missouri, along the Mississippi River, are getting something they do not need right now–rain… And lots of it.

A massive thunderstorm has just erupted, and it’s expected to last a while.

Lincoln County has more water than last time we were here, just a few days ago. Fields for baseball games Friday night now have a couple of inches of water on them.

Houses that survived the initial levee overtopping are now either flooded or dangerously close.

And people are nervous. Will the levees that are still standing now hold, or will there be more flooding? People here in Lincoln County are holding their breath… Again.

Floodwaters in East Moline, north of Grafton Ill., Tuesday.

Gary Tuchman BIO
AC360° Correspondent

Anxiety and nervousness in Grafton, Illinois. Most of downtown is under as much as ten feet of water. And Jim and Linda Tolley are worried.

Floodwaters have surrounded the Tolley’s home and the grocery store they own. The store was submerged by six feet of water in the 1993 floods.

There is one escape route, so they are staying in their home for now, but ready to leave at a moment’s notice.

Their store is closed and they have boxed up their inventory.

Financially, just closing the store is difficult for them. If it gets flooded, it can ruin them.