Two men from Warren Jeffs' polygamist sect expressed their thanks on Thursday for the support they have received from outside the community since their three wives and ten of their children died in a flash flood this week.

Sheldon Black Jr. lost his wife Della and four daughters. Joseph N. Jessop lost his two wives, Josephine and Naomi, and five children.

Black's six-year-old son, Tyson Lucas Black, is still missing.

The three wives, Della, Joesphine and Naomi, were also biological sisters.

The victims were in two vehicles parked at the edge of a charging river on Monday when the waters suddenly rose and picked up their vehicles, dragging them downstream and then dropping them into a ravine in Hildale, Utah.

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Sheldon Black, Jr., and his two surviving sons speak to the media on Thursday. Black expressed his gratitude for the outpouring of support after his wife and children were swept away in a flash food Monday

Joseph N. Jessop and his surviving son, also named Joseph, look on during a news conference on Thursday Thursday. Two of Jessop's two wives and seven of his children were killed in the tragedy

Two of Black's sons and one of Jessop's sons are believed to be the only three children to have survived the incident. They appeared with their fathers at the press conference but didn't speak.

Cuts and bruises presumed to be from Monday's ordeal were visible on the boys' faces.

Black's son Tyson, six, is the only passenger from the two vehicles who remains missing. Search and rescue teams continued their search for him on Thursday.

The four Black daughters that have been confirmed dead range in age from four to ten.

Seven hikers - who were aged in their 40s and 50s and from California and Nevada - were also killed in the flash flooding that swept through a narrow canyon at Utah's Zion National Park. The last body was discovered on Thursday.

Black's wife Della and four of their daughters were killed when their car was swept away in a flash flood on Monday in Hildale, Utah. His 6-year-old son Tyson is still missing

Sheldon Black, Jr's two surviving sons stand by their father during a news conference on Thursday, sporting wounds from their narrow escape

Joseph N. Jessop speaks during a news conference on Thursday. He expressed his thanks for all those who came out and helped look for his wives and children

'We know that God sees and knows all things. We trust in him. We know our loved ones are safe and home,' Jessop said

Sheldon Black said of his loss: 'Our gratitude is beyond words for the kindness and support we've received.'

Meanwhile Jessop said he had faith in God that the death of his wives and children had not been in vain.

'We know that God sees and knows all things. We trust in him. We know our loved ones are safe and home,' he said.

'From the bottom of my heart, thank you for rescuing our children, our family members, for all the support you have given us in our time of grief.'

However, the two fathers quickly changed tack and started condemning the Utah government over a current clash with their church.

Black said his family had been evicted from their home this year - and he compared the suffering of his community to genocide.

A woman looks at a damaged vehicle swept away during a flash flood in Hildale, Utah

Searchers continue to comb through mud and debris for the remaining victims of a flash flood on Thursday

A cadaver dog swims through mud and debris on Thursday during a search for the remaining victim

In this aerial photo, searchers continue looking for 6-year-old Tyson Lucas Black in Zion National Park, Utah

This aerial photo shows Hildale, Utah, Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2015. The majority of the townspeople are members of Warren Jeffs' polygamist sect

Search and rescue volunteers wait for their assignments at the Colorado City Fire Department on Wednesday, September 16, 2015, in Colorado City, Arizona

Above, women from the FLDS sect gather on the banks of a creek on Tuesday to survey the damage after the flash flooding

The Black and Jessop families are part of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a fringe Mormon group that continues to practice polygamy. The mainstream church does not recognize the FLDS, since ending polygamy in 1890.

The FLDS church has been mired in controversy in its recent history - from the raid on its ranch in Texas last year to the conviction of leader Warren Jeffs on sex abuse charges in 2007. Jeffs is serving a life sentence in prison but is said to be continuing to lead the church from behind bars.

Black attributed his family's eviction to the United Effort Plan scandal. In 1942, the FLDS created the UEP as a way to consolidate the church's assets. But the UEP was seized by the state in 2005 amid allegations that Jeffs had been mismanaging the trust.

Sgt Robert 'Steve' Arthur, a veteran of the Ventura County Sheriff's Office, was one of the six people killed when flash floods hit Zion National Park in Utah earlier this week

'All FLDS will be without a home by the end of this year,' Black said on Thursday. 'We ask that this religious genocide stop.'

Jessop said that his home had also been taken, adding: 'Help get our homes back, allow us to live our religion in peace.'

The two men said the funerals for their families would be private.

Their wives' brother, Brian Johnson, told NBC News: 'We are in shock, really.

'We're just trying to figure out what's going on with these funerals.'

He said he was kicked out of the church in 2008 and hadn't seen his sisters in seven years and wasn't exactly sure how many they each had. He believes Della had five or six children, Josephine had four or five and Naomi was a mother of three.

Josephine's eldest son was reportedly the only one of her children to survive, after climbing out of their van to get help.

Johnson said his family hailed from the FLDS community in Texas that was raided by the FBI in 2008. He says that after the raid, he took his sisters in to live with him in Hildale, and that they all lived together briefly before he was kicked out of the sect.

'They didn't have a chance to live really,' he said. 'I wished that I had been able to see them more.'

Search and rescue team members carry a body after it was found along Pine Creek on Wednesday

Authorities found the last of the seven bodies on Thursday. Above, the search effort on Wednesday

Search and rescue team members place a litter in a net for helicopter transport after finding a body in Pine Creek on Wednesday

Ben Black, also an ex-FLDS member, told the Salt Lake Tribune that the victims included his sister-in-law and several of his nieces and nephews.

'They're in a better place,' Black said. 'I'm not mad about it.'

He said after he was kicked out of the church in 2012, his family stayed and - as loyal members of the church - stopped talking to him.

The tragedy that claimed the two families was caught on video. In it, local woman Virginia Black yells 'Oh my God! Oh my God!' as she sees the muddy waters drag the vehicles downstream and drop them over a ravine.

'There goes the van! Oh my god!' says Black in a high-pitched voice. 'It went over the thing! Oh dear!'

Downstream, people rushed to where the vehicles came to a stop. One witness described a gruesome scene of body parts, twisted metal and a young boy who somehow survived.

'The little boy was standing there,' Yvonne Holm recalled. 'He said, "Are you guys going to help me?''

One of the children who survived told an official he escaped by cutting through an air bag, climbing out a window and jumping off the roof of a vehicle.

Utah Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox, who traveled to the community of Hildale, said the boy appeared traumatized when he met with him briefly Tuesday.

Cox says the boy he spoke with 'was still very shaken, as you can imagine, because it was a little surreal to him and everyone'.

Twelve adults and children died after their car was picked up by the flood waters and pushed into a ravine. Three survived and one is still missing

In a recently released video, a woman can be heard hyperventilating as she watches a car and van be swept downstream - powerless to stop them

'There goes the van!' Virginia Black, who recorded the video, is heard yelling in a high-pitched voice. 'It went over the thing. Oh dear.'

Flash floods are not uncommon in the area, but the volume and pace of Monday's rain was a '100-year event' in Hildale, said Brian McInerney, hydrologist with the National Weather Service in Salt Lake City.

The height of the storm lasted about 30 minutes, pouring 1 1/2 inches of rain into a desert-like landscape with little vegetation and steep slopes.

Monday's weather event was like a bucket of water being poured onto a rock - it slid right off and began running downstream, picking up sediment to create the forceful, muddy mess that rushed through the city, McInerney said. Another half-inch of rain came within the hour.

'It just hit the wrong place at the wrong time,' he said.

Residents called it the worst flood in memory for the sister towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Arizona, which is home base for Warren Jeff's polygamous sect. The majority of the 7,700 people in the two communities are followers of Jeffs' sect or have ties to polygamy.

More than four years after Jeffs was sentenced to life in prison, the community is split between loyalists who still believe Jeffs is a victim of religious persecution and defectors who are embracing government efforts to pull the town into modern society.

DEADLIEST EVENT IN RECENT ZION NATIONAL PARK HISTORY The flood marks one of the deadliest weather-related disasters at a national park in recent history, park service officials said. It evoked memories of a 1997 incident near Page, Arizona, where 11 hikers died after a wall of water from a rainstorm miles upstream thundered through Lower Antelope Canyon, a narrow, twisting series of corkscrew-curved walls located on Navajo land. Outdoor enthusiasts are attracted to slot canyons by what Allen calls 'eye candy' created by nature. Water flows through cracks in the earth and gradually erodes the sandstone underneath, leaving caverns narrow enough for hikers to touch the sides when they stretch out their arms. Adventure-seekers also get a rush from the combination of rock climbing, swimming, hiking and cave exploration, all in a setting totally different from the surrounding desert, Allen said. The Keyhole Canyon at Zion in southern Utah where the hikers were killed is what canyoneers call a 'rap and swim' canyon, full of a series of drops where hikers rappel down into pools of water, Allen said. It's considered an entry-level canyon for people who have some experience but are still new to the sport. Zion spokeswoman Aly Baltrus said some members of the group were new to canyoneering, but they took a class to prepare. Park rangers regularly warn hikers that flash flooding during monsoon season can turn southern Utah's beautiful canyons into deadly channels of fast-moving water and debris. But dozens of adventure-seekers go anyway. This group was already in the canyon when a flash flood warning led park officials to announce they were closing their canyons. By that time, park officials say, there was no way to alert them to the violent floodwaters coming their way. Above, Zion National Park where seven hikers were killed in a flash flood tragedy on Monday 'Ninety per cent of Zion is wilderness,' park ranger Therese Picard said. 'It is not possible to contact everyone.' Joe Braun, a canyoneering guide who lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan, visited Keyhole Canyon last week when the weather was calm. He said Keyhole Canyon is one of the shorter, more popular routes at Zion National Park, mostly attracting hikers and canyoneers but not the average tourist. 'The big lure to any slot canyon is just incredibly beautiful scenery. You've got narrow walls around you. When the sun shoots through at the right angle, you've got all these glowing walls,' Braun said. 'It's just a completely magical place.' As canyoneering has grown in popularity since the 1990s, it's also attracted more people who are new to it. Many slot canyons are deceptively easy to enter, luring in people who find themselves trapped in a disaster, Allen said. At Zion, the forecast can be unpredictable, and visitors don't have cellphone service shortly after leaving the visitors center, where they pick up permits for the trip. Braun said he believes the National Park Service did everything it could to warn about the weather. Placing ladders or rescue ropes within the slot canyons would be impractical because of the remoteness of the canyons and their size, he said. Allen said there are scant options to bolster alerts. A siren system might work, but it would also pierce the tranquility of the entire park often, perhaps every day during monsoon season. Experienced canyoneers constantly look for escape routes and opportunities to move to high ground if the need arises, Braun said. But anyone would have had a hard time escaping the flooding. 'They just went in at a bad time,' Braun said. 'The canyon is so narrow, there's no way to get out of certain sections of it. When the rain hits and the flood starts coming in, there's no hope for anyone.' Advertisement

The women struggled through the coursing waters in their drenched prairie dresses. The dresses are customary for women and girls in the church

Members of the sect, which believes polygamy brings exaltation in heaven, are believed to be discouraged from watching TV, using the Internet or having much contact with the outside world.

The community is a patchwork of upscale, elegant residences surrounded by large walls and unfinished, dilapidated houses that remain just as they were in the early 2000s, when Jeffs ordered that all construction stop in Utah to focus on building his compound in Texas.

The torrent was so fast, 'it was taking concrete pillars and just throwing them down, just moving them like plastic,' said Lorin Holm, who called the storm the heaviest in the 58 years he's lived in the community.

'It was an act from God,' Hildale Mayor Phillip Barlow told reporters of Monday's tragedy, according to the Deseret News. 'This is something we can't control. ... It happened too fast.'

Crews have worked since Monday evening monitoring flood crossings and searching the banks of Short Creek amid sporadic rain showers. Contractors using heavy equipment have worked to clear thousands of tons of mud and debris, and the National Guard has been called in to help with the cleanup.

Utah Governor Gary Herbert said he was 'heartbroken,' and that the state has offered its full resources to Hildale to aid the search and rescue effort.

Q&A: DEADLY FLASH FLOODS OCCURRED IN POLYGAMOUS OUTPOST Hildale is home to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and was once controlled by Warren Jeffs (pictured) The small community on the Utah-Arizona border where raging flash flood waters turned deadly is a remote, secluded community just south of Zion National Park that is home to a polygamous sect led by Warren Jeffs. More on the sister towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Arizona: WHO LIVES THERE? An estimated 7,700 people live in the community. They are split between loyalists who still believe Jeffs is a victim of religious persecution and defectors who are embracing government efforts to pull the town into modern society. Members of the sect, known as the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, or FLDS, still outnumber those who have left or been kicked out. The sect is a radical offshoot of mainstream Mormonism whose members believe polygamy brings exaltation in heaven. Polygamy is a legacy of the early teachings of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but the faith prohibits it today. WHERE IS IT? The community is about 315 miles south of Salt Lake City and about 160 miles northwest of Las Vegas, straddling the Utah-Arizona state line. The remoteness of this red rock outpost is what lured Mormon polygamists here in the early 1900s after the mainstream church banned plural marriage in 1890. WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE? The towns sit at the foot of picturesque red rock cliffs, with scrub brush and short trees in the valley below. The community is a patchwork of upscale, elegant residences surrounded by large walls and unfinished, dilapidated houses that remain just as they were in the early 2000s, when Jeffs ordered that all construction stop in Utah to focus on building his compound in Texas. Towering brick walls with no-trespassing signs surround many of homes that resemble small motels. 'Zion' signs hang above dozens of front doors in a nod to the religion's belief in creating a heaven on earth. Women and girls wearing prairie dresses with up-do hairstyles can be seen around town, pumping gas and driving tractors. They often run and hide when they see outsiders. Men drive trucks with windows tinted so dark you can't tell who is inside. WHY IS IT KNOWN AS WARREN JEFFS' SECT IF HE'S IN JAIL? Though Jeffs is serving life in prison in Texas for sexually assaulting underage girls he considered brides - and has been in jail in Utah or Texas continually since 2006 - it is believed he still rules the FLDS through letters and phone calls from prison. One of his brothers, Lyle Jeffs, is in the community and makes sure Jeffs' commandments are carried out. To his followers, roughly estimated to be about 6,000, he is a prophet who speaks for God and can do no wrong. An estimated 7,700 people live in the community. They are split between loyalists who still believe Jeffs is a victim of religious persecution and defectors who are embracing government efforts to pull the town into modern society. Advertisement

The timing of these deadly flash floods may have many in the Mormon community fearing the end of the world. Stores in Utah have been selling out of freeze-dried food, flashlights, tents and other items for emergency based on a set of signs that point to an end of days.

People who are currently preparing for the end of the times are called 'preppers.'

Preppers think there are seven years between each major disaster, hence the seven year gap between September 11 and the stock market crash of September 29, 2008.

Since September has so far sparked some wild NASDAQ fluctuations and a China stock market free fall, some Utah Mormons think plenty worse could happen any day now.

According to prepper lore, September 28, the day of the blood moon, will also usher in an earthquake near Utah, says the outlet.

And that's not all set to happen this month, according to preppers. They also reportedly think the U.N. will invade the country and there will be technological disruptions on a mass scale.

These fears are egged on by an author named Julie Rowe, a Mormon who has written two books on end times, 'A Greater Tomorrow: My Journey Beyond the Veil' and 'The Time Is Now,' says the Tribune.

Rowe gives speeches at Mormon venues, drawing huge crowds of worry warts, and she urges everyone to prepare for world chaos.

Officials with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints took the unusual step of saying that the author didn't represent the church's beliefs.

Meanwhile, search and rescue teams in Zion National Park on Thursday recovered the last of the seven hikers killed when a flash flood ripped through a canyon on the same day.

The party of seven, in their 40s and 50s, were believed to have been hiking through Keyhole Canyon together on Monday when a flash flood killed them all.

Park officials have not released the identities of the seven victims - six from California and one from Nevada. But the Ventura County Sheriff's Department in Southern California said one of the dead is Sgt. Steve Arthur, 58.

His wife, Linda Arthur, was also on the trip and is presumed to be among the victims.

'Steve was known for his tireless efforts working with local youth both on and off duty and possessed a huge compassion for humanity,' the department said in a statement.

The couple were in a group that, like thousands before them, were attracted to the majestic slot canyons of the desert Southwest by unique geological quirks, which also make them deadly.

The curved, narrow sandstone walls glow in the sun with a cathedral-like light. When it rains, however, they can fill with raging rain water in an instant, leaving people with no escape.

That's exactly what happened Monday evening when the group became trapped by floodwaters in Zion's popular Keyhole Canyon. The canyon is as narrow as a window in some spots and several hundred feet deep.

'That little bit of rain can turn what was a very comfortable daylong excursion into a horror story, literally in a split second,' said Colorado-based canyoneering expert Steve Allen.

Jeffs, who was president of the FLDS church from 2002 to 2007, is serving a life sentence in prison for two counts of sexual assault on a child.

Brian Johnson told NBC News that the three women who died were his sisters, and that their children make up the rest of the victims.

Johnson, who was kicked out of the church in 2008, hasn't seen his sisters in seven years and wasn't exactly sure how many they each had. He believes Della had five or six children, Josephine had four or five and Naomi was a mother of three. Josephine's eldest son was reportedly the only one of her children to survive, after climbing out of their van to get help.

'We are in shock, really,' Johnson told NBC News on Wednesday. 'We're just trying to figure out what's going on with these funerals.'

Johnson said his family hailed from the FLDS community in Texas that was raided by the FBI in 2008. He says that after the raid, he took his sisters in to live with him in Hildale, and that they all lived together briefly before he was kicked out of the sect.