PHOENIX (AP) — National Park Service officials expect to restore a reliable water supply in the Grand Canyon in weeks — not months — as the deadly flash flood didn’t damage most of a near-complete pipeline project, they said Tuesday.
Officials said that they were just over a month away from completing a major upgrade to the sole 12.5-mile-long (20-kilometer) Transcanyon Waterline, which supplied water for millions of visitors to the Grand Canyon’s South Rim and about 1,600 residents of Grand Canyon Village.
Click to Gallery
Bright Angel Canyon, damaged by flash floods, runs into the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon, Monday, Aug. 31, 2026, at Grand Canyon National Park, Ariz. (AP Photo/John Locher)
Reserve water tanks for holding drinking water for Grand Canyon Village stand behind fencing, Monday, Aug. 31, 2026, in Grand Canyon National Park, Ariz. (AP Photo/Josh Biggs)
People stand at the rim of the Grand Canyon as rain moves into the canyon, Monday, Aug. 31, 2026, in Grand Canyon National Park, Ariz. (AP Photo/John Locher)
A sign is seen as officials at Grand Canyon National Park in northern Arizona have closed off access to water sources at the park after a flash flood damaged the only water pipeline that serves the canyon, Monday, Aug. 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Ty ONeil)
Flood debris lines Bright Angel Canyon near where it meets the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon, Monday, Aug. 31, 2026, at Grand Canyon National Park, Ariz. (AP Photo/John Locher)
Construction of a temporary water intake that matches the park’s pre-flood pumping capacity will start this week. Park officials encourage residents and tourists to continue conserving water as they work on a more than $200 million repair and upgrade project.
Before the floods, officials said the project would ensure the park can meet its water supply needs for the next 50 years or more.
“The damage to this old pipe is no longer relevant to our new solution,” Dave Black, deputy incident commander at the National Park Service’s Western Incident Management Team, said. “Every gallon we conserve gives our crews more time to complete the work in the canyon.”
The flash flood on Aug. 29 caused two deaths, left one person missing and caused about 80 rescues. Search and rescue efforts are ongoing.
The floods mark the third time that overnight stays have been paused due to pipeline failures since August 2024.
Officials also implemented significant water conservation measures for residents to protect the limited stored water on the South Rim, where most visitors go.
Gloria Barrett, a longtime resident of Grand Canyon Village who works for a helicopter tour company, shut off her water heater to help her household of four conserve water.
“That inhibits us from taking longer showers because the water’s so cold, which is miserable," she said.
Barrett, her partner and his two teenage sons have been eating on paper plates to avoid doing dishes and reusing cooking water to give to their dog. In her 10 years living inside the park, Barrett said she has learned to get creative with water conservation — the pipeline has broken more than 85 times since 2010 — but she has never seen damage this “extreme.”
The pipeline, which has been in place nearly twice as long as it was supposed to be, crosses rugged terrain from the quieter South Rim, down to the canyon floor and back up to the South Rim to provide drinking water and fire suppression.
Many families in Grand Canyon Village live paycheck to paycheck, Barrett said, and leaving “is not an option for us — it’s not feasible." But for the 27-year-old, who also owns a transport company that shuttles tourists from rim to rim, the hotel closures brought a wave of cancellations during what she said was her busiest season.
Bing Pan, a tourism and recreation professor at Pennsylvania State University, said tourism also supports the largely part-time, seasonal workforce on the South Rim. Even weeks of slowed service could be detrimental to their families.
“Workers in the park, who are paid around $15 to $20 per hour, usually don’t have much savings," Pan said. “Natural disasters and slowed service flows could push them to the brink of leaving the area, devastating the local tourism economy.”
This story has been corrected to show the meeting was Tuesday, not Wednesday.
Schoenbaum reported from Salt Lake City.
Bright Angel Canyon, damaged by flash floods, runs into the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon, Monday, Aug. 31, 2026, at Grand Canyon National Park, Ariz. (AP Photo/John Locher)
Reserve water tanks for holding drinking water for Grand Canyon Village stand behind fencing, Monday, Aug. 31, 2026, in Grand Canyon National Park, Ariz. (AP Photo/Josh Biggs)
People stand at the rim of the Grand Canyon as rain moves into the canyon, Monday, Aug. 31, 2026, in Grand Canyon National Park, Ariz. (AP Photo/John Locher)
A sign is seen as officials at Grand Canyon National Park in northern Arizona have closed off access to water sources at the park after a flash flood damaged the only water pipeline that serves the canyon, Monday, Aug. 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Ty ONeil)
Flood debris lines Bright Angel Canyon near where it meets the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon, Monday, Aug. 31, 2026, at Grand Canyon National Park, Ariz. (AP Photo/John Locher)
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Republican John E. Sununu and Democrat Chris Pappas will compete for an open U.S. Senate seat in New Hampshire in a race that has emerged as one of a handful around the country that could determine control of the chamber in November.
Sununu, a former U.S. senator, and Pappas, a member of the U.S. House, are vying to replace U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, whose decision to not seek reelection created a cascade of competitive races. Both entered their respective party primaries as strong front-runners and now have just eight weeks to make their case to general election voters.
Republicans view the seat as an opportunity to regain a foothold in a region long dominated by Democrats in Congress. Democrats, meanwhile, need a net gain of four seats to retake the chamber, and keeping New Hampshire in their column is a critical part of that effort.
In other top races, Anthony DiLorenzo won the Republican primary for the 1st Congressional District, while Lily Tang Williams won the GOP primary in the 2nd District, where she’ll face U.S. Rep. Maggie Goodlander, a Democrat seeking a second term.
Still outstanding were the results in the Democratic primary for the 1st District, where the candidates included Shaheen’s daughter, Stefany Shaheen, and retired Marine Maura Sullivan.
Pappas, who is giving up his seat in the 1st Congressional District after four terms, defeated four other candidates, including democratic socialist Karishma Manzur, who had been gaining on him in recent weeks.
Speaking to supporters at his family's restaurant in Manchester, he quickly sought to link Sununu to President Donald Trump, who endorsed Sununu even though Sununu called him “a loser” during the 2024 presidential campaign.
“While New Hampshire families are struggling to make ends meet, John Sununu has thrown his lot in with Donald Trump and supports the policies that cater to big corporations and billionaires while they make life harder for Granite Staters,” said Pappas, whose campaign also quickly posted a negative ad on social media calling Sununu “a sequel we can't afford.”
“We've got to turn the page on Donald Trump's reckless leadership, on corruption, on the rigged economy and on costs, and this is not the time to turn it back to a failed politician from the past," he said at his victory party.
Sununu, who spent six years in the U.S. House and one term in the Senate before being ousted by Shaheen in 2008, called Pappas a career politician who has held office for virtually his entire adult life.
“He’s not an independent voice for New Hampshire,” Sununu said at his victory party at a Manchester ski area. “Chris Pappas has three main qualities: ineffective, partisan and out of touch with New Hampshire.”
Sununu defeated seven other Republicans to win the primary, including former U.S. Sen. Scott Brown, who accused him of coasting on his name. Sununu's father and younger brother are both former governors.
Jim Loomis, 83, of Bow, said he backed Brown in 2014 but not on Tuesday because “he never got traction back again.” He acknowledged Sununu had been out of politics for even longer but still voted for him.
“I think what he’s done for work over the years has kept him close enough to what’s going on, and then with his family ties, I just think he’s got a more stable base,” Loomis said.
Stefany Shaheen and Sullivan were the leading candidates among seven seeking the Democratic nomination in the 1st District.
Shaheen is a former city councilor in Portsmouth. She founded a business to help people with chronic medical conditions after one of her daughters was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. She also is part of a bio-tech initiative in New Hampshire to advance regenerative medicine.
Sullivan is a retired Marine and Iraq War veteran who served as an assistant secretary at the Department of Veterans Affairs under President Barack Obama. A vice chair of the New Hampshire Democratic Party, Sullivan ran for the 1st District seat in 2018, losing in an 11-candidate primary to Pappas in his first congressional bid.
On the Republican side, political newcomer DiLorenzo, who owns a chain of car dealerships and has been endorsed by Trump, won the Republican primary. He defeated three other candidates, including Hollie Noveletsky, a veteran and nurse practitioner who runs a steel fabrication company and ran for the same seat two years ago.
In the 2nd District, first-term incumbent Goodlander overcame a primary challenge from Paige Beauchemin, a progressive state lawmaker and nurse. Tang Williams, who was the nominee two years ago and was making her third attempt at the seat, won the Republican primary.
In contrast to the all-Democratic congressional delegation, Republicans dominate state government.
Republican Gov. Kelly Ayotte defeated two little-known opponents in her primary as she seeks a second two-year term. Cinde Warmington, a healthcare attorney, was unopposed for the Democratic nomination.
Voters also were nominating candidates for the entire state Legislature, where Republicans hold a roughly 40-vote majority in the 400-member House and outnumber Democrats in the Senate 16-8.
Accustomed to going first when it comes to presidential primaries, New Hampshire is among the last states to hold state-level primary elections. But legislation passed this year moves future state primaries to the second Tuesday in June.
Camille Coulborn of Chesterfield, N.H., fills out her ballot inside a voting booth in Chesterfield during the New Hampshire State Primaries on Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026. (Kristopher Radder/The Brattleboro Reformer via AP)
Republican U.S. Senate nominee John E. Sununu gesturing while addressing supporters in Manchester, N.H., on Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026, shortly after winning his party's primary election. (AP Photo/Rodrique Ngowi)
Republican U.S. Senate nominee John E. Sununu gesturing while addressing supporters in Manchester, N.H., on Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026, shortly after winning his party's primary election. (AP Photo/Rodrique Ngowi)
Karishma Manzur, Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, talks with a group of potential voters outside Brothers Cortado in Bicentennial Square in Concord, N.H., Friday, July 24, 2026. (Geoff Forester/The Concord Monitor via AP)
Former Sen. John E. Sununu, who is seeking the GOP nomination for his old seat, takes a selfie with supporter Sudie Francouer, in Berlin, N.H., Saturday, Aug. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Holly Ramer)
Former U.S. Sen. Scott Brown, a Republican who previously represented Massachusetts and is making his second run for Senate in New Hampshire, addresses voters at an American Legion hall in Londonderry, New Hampshire, on Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Holly Ramer)
FILE - Rep. Chris Pappas, D-N.H., speaks during a news conference at the Capitol, April 29, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr., File)
Former U.S. Sen. Scott Brown listens to a voter in Londonderry, New Hampshire, on Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026, as he campaigns for the GOP nomination for the state’s open Senate seat. (AP Photo/Holly Ramer)
Former Sen. John E. Sununu, who is running for his old seat nearly 18 years after being ousted, mingles with voters at the Coos County Republican Committee BBQ in Berlin, N.H., Saturday, Aug. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Holly Ramer)
