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2 men drown in Colorado River when rafts flip near Moab

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Two men drowned Thursday after the rafts they were riding in flipped over in the same spot on the Colorado River near Cisco, according to the Grand County Sheriff's Office.

Two men drowned Thursday after the rafts they were riding in flipped over in the same spot on the Colorado River near Cisco, according to the Grand County Sheriff’s Office.

Tom Smart, Deseret News

CISCO, Grand County — Two men drowned Thursday after the rafts they were riding in flipped in the same spot on the Colorado River near Cisco, according to the Grand County Sheriff's Office.

The rafts overturned about 1:30 p.m. at Funnel Falls in Westwater Canyon, about 54 miles from Moab, throwing several people into the water, deputies said.

Two men — one from a commercial raft, the other from a private raft — were unresponsive when they were found and a medical helicopter was dispatched. Efforts to revive the men were unsuccessful, the sheriff's office said.

The bodies of Adam Ericksen, 27, of Bountiful, and Charles McLynch, 50, of Bay Shore, New York, and were moved down river by raft to the Cisco boat ramp, then transported to the Utah State Medical Examiner's Office for autopsy.