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As crews continued Thursday to comb through mud and debris in search of a missing 6-year-old boy swept away in a flash flood that ripped through Hildale, the husbands and fathers of those killed thanked the public for the assistance.

There was no sign of Tyson Lucas Black as of late Thursday. The search was expected to resume Friday.

Sheldon Black Jr. and Joseph N. Jessop appeared at a news conference Thursday morning in adjoining Colorado City, Ariz. KUTV reported that the men, with their three surviving sons beside them, expressed their gratitude and spoke about how difficult a time this has been for the community.

In all, 13 women and children died in the flood. The waters spilled over the banks of Short Creek Wash, which cuts through Hildale and Colorado City.

At a news conference late Thursday morning in Hildale, reporters heard from Black, who lost his wife, Della Johnson, and three of his children — two other children, his sons, escaped — in the flash flood.

"Our hearts are swollen with grief. ... Thank you for helping our children and for all the support you have given us in this time," he said, addressing his comments to law enforcement and emergency workers who have helped in rescue and recovery work. "[The gratitude] is felt from the bottom of our hearts."

Saying he was responding to inquiries about what can be done to help the community in the future, Black's tone was subdued and bitter as he spoke about anti-polygamous prosecutions and property seizures he indicated amounted to "religious genocide."

"My family was evicted from our home recently. I was working far away, [and] my brother helped find them a place to stay. ... It took weeks," he said, near tears. "If this experience can help get all our community's families homes back, and allow us to live our religion in peace ..."

Black appeared to be referring to evictions on homes owned by the United Effort Plan. It is the trust that owns most of the homes in Hildale and Colorado City. The state of Utah seized the UEP in 2005 amid concerns FLDS leader Warren Jeffs was mismanaging it.

However, UEP employee Isaac Wyler said there is no record of an eviction being served on Black or his family. Black signed an occupancy agreement on a home years ago, Wyler said.

Meanwhile, Utah Gov. Gary Herbert ordered flags lowered to half-staff statewide Thursday in honor of the southern Utah flash-flood victims.

As search efforts resumed Thursday morning, the body of Tyson Lucas Black, age 6, was unaccounted for, despite the efforts of the team of 26 Utah National Guard's 2-222nd Field Artillery Battery B and 24 searchers of Utah Task Force 1, cq whose specialty is searching through the aftermath of disasters.

Three hundred searchers — and 13 cadaver search dogs — were on the scene Thursday.

Teams walked with dogs and hand tools, prodding the ground for the boy's remains along a 7-mile section of the wash, which begins near the mouth of Maxwell Canyon in Utah and stretches across the border into northern Arizona.

The combined flooding has been called the single deadliest weather event in Utah history.

The disaster occurred about the same time Monday that seven hikers were swept away by raging water in Zion National Park's Keyhole Canyon, roughly 45 miles northwest of Hildale. The last of the hikers' bodies was recovered by park officials late Thursday morning.

All of the Hildale victims are believed to be members of the Jeffs-led FLDS church, which practices polygamy as part of its religious beliefs.

Josephine and Naomi Jessop were in a 15-passenger van with eight of their children, who were between ages 5 and 11. One child in that van, also a boy, survived.