CAVE CREEK, Ariz. - Tragedy has left a hole in an Arizona community after a close-knit family was lost in a flash flood while celebrating a birthday.
Maria Raya-Garcia almost didn't get the weekend off to spend her 27th birthday by a popular swimming hole with her extended family because bosses at the restaurant where she worked initially didn't want to give her the time off.
Raya-Garcia was lounging with family in a rocky canyon north of Phoenix Saturday when a flash flood roared down a placid creek and swept them away.
Mother Nature in seconds ravaged the extended family with roots in the central Mexican state of Guanajuato, leaving nine confirmed dead. Authorities say a body found Wednesday is that of her husband, Hector Miguel Garnica.
Raya-Garcia was killed along with her three young children, mother and other relatives.
